“I need to be inside you so damn badly. Put me inside you.”

  She reached between them, gripping his cock once again. With his help, she placed him at the entrance of her pussy, and then he helped her to sink onto his cock, feeling him fill her up.

  Eyes closed.

  Head thrown back.

  She cried out as he thrust to the hilt within her, holding her tightly in his arms. Max was so different when they were together.

  Outside, around people, he was cold, distant. Even tonight handing out candy to strangers, he was stiff, mechanical almost, but here, staring into his eyes, she didn’t know if it was because she wanted to see a difference or he actually gave her the chance to.

  In and out, he took her, driving inside her and making her moan his name.

  She wanted him so badly.

  For so long, she had been made to feel that her sexual desires were illegal, something to be ashamed of. Between Max and Dylan, they made her feel complete. Both men wanted her, craved her. It was a feeling she never wanted to forget.

  Max gripped her hair and pulled her down, kissing her lips.

  His movements became rushed, and she knew it wasn’t going to be long before he was coming inside her. Holding on to him, she took everything he had to offer, hungry for it all, desperate. When he broke the kiss, she tilted her head back, moaning as he hit a spot within her that sent her over the edge.

  They came together. The hard pulse of his cock, driving deep, filled her with his cum.

  She didn’t know if he was doing it on purpose or if he didn’t realize there was a chance she could get pregnant.

  Raine quickly pushed those questions to the back of her mind. She didn’t want to talk about pregnancy right now. There was no reason to put a label on what they were enjoying together.

  Max held her still in the shower, the water crashing down around them. She closed her eyes, not wanting this moment to end. Feeling everything and knowing the beat of his head, the rapidness of it, was because of her.

  She didn’t want to let him go.

  Not once.

  He’s not yours.

  The harsh reality was something she couldn’t get away from.

  Max and Dylan were not hers.

  ****

  Three weeks later

  Dylan glanced around the local supermarket, seeing the chaos and commotion of Thanksgiving shopping. He and Max had never celebrated this day. In fact, without Lake and Raine, they wouldn’t have celebrated Halloween or the upcoming Christmas. Raine had already gotten them together and asked what they hoped to get Lake as gifts this year.

  This was all new to him.

  For the longest time, his life had been dedicated to work. There was the occasional fun, but for the most part, it was work.

  “Pecans, and we need some chocolate chips,” Raine said.

  “Tell me again why I’m the one following you around the store?” he asked.

  “Simple. You and Max drew straws and you got the shortest one.”

  Dylan paused in pushing the cart. “You know about that?”

  She smirked. “I saw you both in the office when I came back from dropping off Lake at school. Neither of you had to come with me. I’ve been grocery shopping for a long time. I know how to do this.”

  Max had told him that one of them needed to go with her. He should have known it was a ruse just so his friend didn’t feel bad.

  “You hate this, don’t you?”

  “No, no, it’s fine. Grocery shopping is supposed to be fun, right?”

  She put her hand on top of his arm. “It can be fun, if you enjoy it. I know Lake loves going grocery shopping with me. She always creates a little list so we can bake together.”

  “You’re really good with kids, you know that?”

  “I’ve been a nanny for the longest time, but I used to babysit when I was younger as well.” She shrugged. “I guess it does help that I love kids.”

  “You do?”

  “Yep. Lake’s adorable.”

  “That she is. I never gave kids much of a thought until Lake, to be honest.”

  “You never thought about the future? Like what you’d want to do if you met the right woman?” Raine asked.

  He took a deep breath. “It’s not something I’ve thought about in a long time.”

  “How come?”

  “Max.”

  “You have to get his permission?”

  “No. It’s…” He stopped. He was going to say it was complicated, but that would have been a big lie. “Max and I have a complex friendship.”

  “Because you want to share one woman?”

  “We have a friendship pact. Our lives are so connected that we knew if we were to risk separating and having different women as our wives, there was a risk they wouldn’t like one another. Of course, it helped that we’ve both been attracted to the same kind of woman. Sharing is in our future, but not a lot of women would consider having two men at their beck and call for a lifetime.”

  “Oh.”

  He glanced at her. Dylan didn’t know if this conversation was going the right way.

  “But what if you did find the right woman? What then?”

  “I think we’d want kids. To have a family. The whole of it. Max is a pain in the ass though. You have surprised me.”

  “How come?”

  “You’re not put off by his lack of charm.”

  She tucked some hair behind her ear. “He’s charming in his own way. He does try.”

  “Please, I sometimes think a brick wall would have a little more charisma.”

  “He’s not the easiest guy to get to know, but I don’t imagine a lot of people are. Life has a way of doing that to you. Getting under your skin, making you hate the world around you. It’s tough.”

  There was so much he wanted to say, to ask. Instead, he fell silent and pushed the cart. They had to wait at the checkouts, which he didn’t like to do.

  “You know they have amazing places where you can order a ready-made Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “I know, but then Lake wouldn’t get the experience of being in the kitchen and enjoying it.” Raine nudged his shoulder with hers.

  “She wants to do this?”

  “Yep, she does. Surprised?”

  “I shouldn’t be. She’s related to Max and we know how weird he is.”

  “Stop it. You love Max. We both know it. He will always have you.”

  “That he will,” Dylan said.

  But would he always have Raine?

  They moved up the line, and Raine started to unload the cart. For the past three weeks, he’d finally gotten his dream of having Raine in his or Max’s bed. It was a dream come true for him, but now as he watched her, he had to wonder, did they really have her? Having sex wasn’t all part of a relationship. Sharing memories was important.

  Running his fingers through his hair, he followed Raine to the end of the till and helped her bag up their purchases.

  Sharing moments like these didn’t seem important to him six months ago. In fact, before Lake came into their world, nothing but work and playing seemed important. He hadn’t lived like a monk. He and Max had shared women in the past, but they also had their own personal affairs.

  That had all changed when Raine entered their lives.

  Dylan remembered the first time he saw her. Her long brown hair had been pulled back into a ponytail. She’d worn a pair of jeans and a blouse, and she’d looked a spectacular mess. The women he’d been used to seeing were always so well put together, ready to be in a business meeting at a moment’s notice.

  They were high-flying businesswomen.

  Raine was … raw. She was earthy. She lived her life on the ground, taking each moment as it came. She was everything he and Max were not. Even down to her love of cooking and sewing.

  Lake gravitated to her, and he’d noticed how she brought out the best in the young girl.

  You’re falling for her.

  It wasn’t a shocking revelation, but he knew he had to find out what Max thought of her, and if he considered a future with her or not.

  Chapter Nine

  “Is your nightclub always this busy?” Raine asked.

  Max smiled as he took note of the long line of guests waiting to get into Ménage. Business was doing well. If any of their nightclubs and restaurants showed a decline in revenue, he and Dylan made sure to find out the root cause of the problem. More often than not, it was down to bad advertising.

  They made it their mission to have every single club be a success.

  “Always,” he said.

  It was the day before Thanksgiving. Lake had a bit of a cold, and Dylan had advised he take Raine out, show her their clubs. Ménage was one of their most successful, but it was also the first club they had built from the ground up. The profit from this club had seen to them opening a second, third, and so on.

  They stepped into the main foyer, and the room was split in two. The maître de waited to invite customers to the restaurant portion, and there was a guard holding the door for the nightclub.

  He nodded at the maître de and proceeded toward his reserved table. He and Dylan always had one table on reserve. The perks of owning the place.

  Max held out a chair for Raine, and she thanked him while taking a seat.

  “I can’t believe we can’t hear the nightclub,” Raine said.

  “We paid careful attention to soundproofing, but there is a good distance between the nightclub and the restaurant. This place used to be a warehouse dealing in cardboard boxes. Dylan and I snapped it up at a steal price and were able to use the abundant space to create what we wanted.”

  “Don’t you have … legal limits or anything?”

  “We consulted all the necessary legalities before we signed on the dotted line. I think Ménage helps to create that aurora of having whatever the hell you want. Some people do not want to go out clubbing but love the value of a good meal. Others want the best of both worlds, and we accommodate that. Also, we came up with the concept when Dylan kept slowing down the decision-making by how hungry he was. When we were younger, he ate everything and anything. This decision came out of my irritation in waiting around for him. We now have restaurants in nearly all nightclubs, or at least close by.”

  “Sounds amazing, possibly a little too easy,” Raine said.

  The waiter came over and presented him with the menu as well as Raine. As per their protocol, the women were never given the price of the meal. There had been some complaints from bad dates who didn’t want to feel like they owed their date anything.

  To Max, allowing your date to see the price was bad taste. He was the kind of guy who always picked up the tab. That wouldn’t change. Dylan had tried to make some changes, but Max wouldn’t budge. There was nothing wrong with men paying for the date.

  “Pick whatever you want,” he said.

  He watched as she glanced down the menu. “I don’t know how much anything costs.”

  Max explained his thoughts to her.

  “Okay, I see your point in trying to be the gentleman, or whatever. What if the guy expects payment in other ways but the woman doesn’t want that? It’s a bad date and she just wants to go home? What about if it’s a date between two women or two men?”

  “Why do we have to assume it’s going to be a bad date?” he asked.

  “Not all dates are great. A conflict of personalities. Some men are assholes. Some women are bitches. It goes both ways.”

  Max sat back. “For the first time in my life, I guess I was hoping for the positive. If you’re on a date, then it has to go well.”

  Raine smiled. She covered her mouth and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I actually find that … amazing. You don’t always see the world like others do.”

  He shrugged. “It’s my curse.”

  “I do find it a little hard to believe that you of all people can hope to see the good in all things.”

  “I don’t see the good in all things. Dating is different.”

  “Have you dated many people?” she asked.

  “No, and I’ve had my fair share of bad dates.”

  “You have?”

  He nodded. “Don’t we all?”

  “Yeah, and you don’t even need to be with someone a lifetime for it to go sour.”

  “Your ex?” he asked.

  “Yeah, my ex. I never thought I’d live with someone and not realize it was over until you find them screwing your best friend. Or that when you see it happening, you wouldn’t care.”

  “You didn’t care about your ex?”

  “In the end, no. I felt nothing. This was a guy who at one point I thought I was going to share the rest of my life with. I don’t know what happened. I guess we grew apart. We stopped … connecting. I don’t know. It’s all a little confusing.”

  “But you don’t miss him?” Max asked.

  He wasn’t going to let Raine see that he was a little panicked.

  “No, I don’t. Do you think that makes me a bad person?”

  “You loved him at some point, right?”

  She opened her mouth, closed it. “I don’t think I did. How horrible is that? It was just easier to carry on with life. We shared a moment in time, and then it vanished.”

  “Love is complicated.”

  “No, I don’t think it is. I just think so often we confuse lust or infatuation with love, and because of that, we fall foul to making mistakes.” She shrugged. “Love is … powerful. It is a strong emotion. I know a lot of people throw it out like it’s going out of fashion. I love this sauce. I love these shoes. I love you and such, but true love, the kind that consumes, I think it goes deeper.”

  “How?” Max asked.

  Raine took a deep breath.

  The restaurant was a nice place. She liked the low lighting, the soft music. The fact there was a nightclub next door was a surprise. It had been a long time since she had gone to any nightclub.

  Pushing some hair out of her face, she sat back. They still hadn’t ordered their meal, and they were talking about love.

  “How what?” she asked, hoping to stall.

  “How is love deeper? How does it consume?”

  She licked her dry lips and glanced down at the menu, trying to think of the right words. “I guess, the way I see it, especially after not having any feelings about my breakup, love means more. It’s what gets you up on a day. It’s what drives you to get through the day. The thought of that one person who you love, and without any reason for it, a smile appears on your face. Just thinking about them makes you happy. At the same time, the very thought of anything bad happening to them makes you feel sick inside. You want to die or put yourself so you’re the one feeling their pain. To me, love consumes you. In the oddest of moments, you want to call them, just to hear their voice.” She smiled. “Even if that means getting their voicemail. You still get to hear them.”

  “Love sounds awful.”

  Raine chuckled. “It is, but that’s why it’s one of the biggest industries, right? Love and romance in books and movies.”

  The waiter returned to the table, and Raine listened to Max order a steak special. She decided to join him by having the same.

  Their menus were taken and she turned to see a woman move onto the stage. She was dressed in gold and looked so stunning. She stood in front of a microphone and began to sing. The soft sounds of her voice filled the air, calming Raine’s mind.

  Talking about love made her nervous. Mainly because she knew deep down, she was falling for both of her employers. Max and Dylan were so different from her ex. Even when it came to her feelings. She didn’t feel like she was going through the motions or making quick decisions for an easy life.

  Dylan and Max made her feel so many things that at times, it scared her. Lake as well. She adored the little girl so much. She wanted to protect her from the outside world, from the fear of loneliness.

  Raine was startled and looked down to see Max had taken her hand, locking their fingers together.

  Three weeks, they had shared their bodies with each other. She’d woken up every morning sandwiched between the two.

  Biting her lip, she listened to the love song the woman sang. The pain of losing a fresh love, the despair of never finding another. Tears filled her eyes. All this talk of love was getting to her.

  “Excuse me.” She pulled her hand away from Max’s and excused herself, seeing the sign for the bathroom. She was quiet, so as not to interrupt the woman’s performance. Her chest hurt.

  After opening the bathroom door, she moved to the sink, grabbed the edge, and took several deep breaths. “I can do this. I can do this.”

  As her world was falling apart, she couldn’t help but remember the contract she’d signed. Max and Dylan were her employers. She had no right. No claim to them.

  Lifting her head, she stared at her reflection and sank her teeth into her bottom lip.

  This wasn’t a good way to spend her life.

  The bathroom door opened, and Max entered the room. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “I know I’m not the easiest man to get along with. I know I’m an asshole, and cold, and I struggle with everyday life, but you don’t need to hide from me. You don’t have to be afraid.”

  “I’m not afraid.” She turned toward him as he closed the distance between them.

  He cupped her cheek. “Then why do you look like you’re going to cry?”

  “I’m not.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head.

  His gaze roamed her face, then settled on her lips. His thumb brushed across her bottom lip, and she closed her eyes, gasping as he slowly pushed his thumb in.

  “I think you’re lying, Raine.” His other hand went to her waist. Slowly, he slid his hand up until he captured her breast in his palm. He groaned.

  “Someone might come in and see.”

  “No, they won’t. No one will interrupt us,” he said. “I have to wonder, though.” His hand moved from her hip, going to the curve of her ass. “I cannot feel any panties on you.”

  “I’m not wearing any.”

  He growled against her neck, his teeth nipping at the flesh. “How am I going to go out there knowing that?” he asked.

 

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