Chapter Four

The sun had slipped into the sea by the time Quinn and I arrived back at the apartment. I felt pleasantly tipsy and perfectly full from my French food extravaganza. My head was filled with what might happen now we were back. The sexual tension between us had spiralled to a dizzy height as the elevator had climbed to the penthouse apartment.

“So tell me about this Jed character,” Quinn said, stepping into the kitchen. There’d been no sign of Liam since we’d arrived back.

“Do I have to?” My body deflated at the thought of Jed. A damn shame considering I’d been buzzing quite nicely.

“Liam filled me in on most of it, but I’d like to hear it from you.” Quinn checked the kettle and tapped it on.

I studied his bum in his neat black trousers.

“I want to know what the creep did to you,” he said.

I sat down at the island and kicked off my stilettos, which I’d teamed with the navy jeans and one of the soft, long-sleeved tops. With the silver cross necklace I always wore it had been just about suitable for a French restaurant. “Do I have to?” I asked, pushing my hair back from my face and sighing. “I’ve had such a nice evening I’d rather not spoil it by talking about him.”

Quinn turned, cocked his head and looked at me thoughtfully. “I guess we don’t have to talk about him right now...” His eyes narrowed. “Not if there’s something else you want to talk about...or do.”

I felt a tremble in my belly at the hidden undercurrents in his words. I gave a half- smile.

He walked toward me with a determined glint in his eye and steely confidence in his stride. He drew next to me, close, real close.

I caught my breath.

“Damn it, you’re irresistible,” he husked.

The next thing I knew he’d plucked me off the stool and pulled me against his hard chest. I was instantly bathed in the warmth of his body and inhaled his spiced aftershave mingled with raw masculinity. I looked up, his face was dark with desire, his lips parted and moist. I curled my fingers over his shoulders and went on tiptoes.

He bent his head and caught my lips in a hot, open-mouthed kiss. I gasped at the burning intensity. He swallowed the sound as his tongue began a crazy dance with mine. He was lethal, no woman could arm herself against Quinn’s devastating brand of kissing.

He wrapped his arms around me and his erection prodded my stomach as our bodies squeezed together. He groaned, a deep, guttural sound that vibrated from his belly. He ground against me again, increasing the friction between us and groaned some more.

My head spun with lust and champagne. Suddenly Quinn was the only person in the world, the universe. He pulled away an inch and his hand tugged at my jean buttons. I felt him delve between denim and my flesh. I kissed him harder, encouraged him on. I needed him to touch me like I needed to breathe. I shoved at my jeans to make his journey easier and they rucked at my thighs along with my new cerise thong.

Then, with a sudden surge of power and without taking his lips from mine, he hoisted me onto the island.

I drew a sharp intake of breath. The marble was cold on my bare butt. He leaned over and I grasped him for purchase as he slipped his fingers toward my pussy. I tried to spread my legs but was restricted by half-mast jeans. It didn’t matter. Quinn was shoved between my knees and making fast work of searching out my entrance. I felt him probing with two long fingers, just for a second, and then he plunged in, smooth and fast, hard and urgent. I opened my mouth in a silent exclamation and became aware of my pulse thudding in my ears as loud as any drum.

“Jeez, you’re so hot, so damn hot and so tight,” Quinn panted into my mouth, his voice deep and sinful. “I knew you would, I knew you’d feel amazing, Ariane.” He pulled his body up and looked down, his eyes glazed with lust.

I followed his line of sight and we both watched as his fingers disappeared into my black curls, pulled out and then vanished again.

Watching him penetrate me had me instantly ready to burst. I could see my moisture coating his skin, hear myself becoming so wet that with each pump of his beautiful fingers; small juicy noises filled the air along with my sweet, aroused scent. I clenched around him and he treated me to a third finger as he circled my clit with his thumb. I cried out at the stretching, impaling sensation and the firm pressure where I needed it most. He caught me again in another one of his lethal kisses and the sound became a muffled groan.

“Come, Ariane, come for me,” he murmured.

I shut my eyes, lost, and began to ride his hand as he worked faster and faster. My breathing came in ragged spurts and my toes and fingers curled. I felt myself climbing up to the exquisite bliss of the first climax I’d claimed in months.

Suddenly I was there. I exploded and shouted out his name. My body jerked and my spine arched. Quinn wrapped his free hand around my shoulders, held me tight as he continued to drive into me, eking out every last tremor of my glorious release. I felt another surge of wetness as my internal muscles pumped around his wickedly expert hand, and then I was panting, desperate for air and looking up at his face silhouetted by the bright ceiling light.

He was staring at me, not smiling, just wide-eyed. “Stunning,” he said. “You’re so responsive, so reactive, I can hardly believe it.”

“It’s been quite a while,” I confessed, dragging in lungfuls of oxygen and becoming aware once more of my surroundings. The marble really was hard and very cold on my naked behind.

Suddenly another deep, male voice ricocheted around the kitchen and invaded our private moment. “I’m glad you two are getting on so well.”

I looked around Quinn’s shoulder at the kitchen doorway. Liam stood, arms folded, feet apart, as he surveyed us draped over the marble island he’d designed.

“Hey,” Quinn said, turning but making no move to take his fingers from inside me.

My heart leapt and I pushed frantically against him. Prickles of mortification swept through the very core of my being as I squirmed and finally rid myself of his invasion. I slid ungracefully from the island and tugged up my jeans. I heard a whimper of embarrassment escape my lips, squeezed shut my eyes and prepared to take flight.

“Hey,” Quinn said, reaching for me. “Ariane.”

“No.” I shrugged him off and sidestepped.

But it was no good. He was too strong and too quick. He scooped me against his chest and bent his head to my ear. “Ariane,” he said again, curling his arms around me in a vise-like grip. “It’s okay, really.”

“I have to go.” I twisted away from where Liam stood. My heart was threatening to burst right out of my chest. He would think I was a tart, a whore, a slut. I’d been giving off serious signals of interest to him only hours ago and now he’d come out of his office to discover me sprawled wantonly over his breakfast counter being hand-fucked by his flatmate. “I can’t stay, not now, please, let me go. I have to go.”

I pushed against Quinn with all my strength and shoved backward, but something caught me. Not something, someone. Liam. Suddenly I was trapped between two rock-hard chests and surrounded by four determined arms.

“Don’t go,” Liam said into my ear. “I’m not mad at you.” He spoke with such softness that instantly my eyes filled with emotion. “I want you to stay.”

“We want you to stay,” Quinn added.

A tear of shame spilled over my lower lid.

“Why are you sad?” Quinn asked, tipping my chin. “I thought I just made you fly.”

“You did, but...” I dropped my head into the palms of my hands. “But I’m so embarrassed, you’ve been so kind, so helpful and you don’t even know me, somewhere to stay, clothes, food.” A juddering sob broke free. “And I’ve repaid you by behaving like a whore.”

Liam sucked in a breath behind me. “Don’t you ever say that about yourself again, Ariane.” He spun me to face him instead of Quinn. “I won’t stand for it and neither will Quinn.”

“Absolutely not,” Quinn confirmed. “What you just did made us both very happy and we won’t have you corrupting it.”

My mind was reeling. What on earth were they on about? I had just made them ”both” very happy with my terrible display of sluttiness? “I behave like a loose-moraled tart and that makes you happy?” I asked, stunned, and taking my hands from my shame-stained cheeks.

“If you say that again, or anything like that,” Quinn said in a decidedly dangerous growl by my ear, “I’ll put you over my knee and spank that sexy little ass of yours, Ariane.”

My mouth dropped open in shock as my body trembled at the kinky suggestion.

Liam took full advantage of my open mouth and suddenly he was kissing me, gently and slowly but with a harnessed passion that had me opening for more in spite of my confusing predicament. He cranked up the heat, our teeth touched briefly and then he delved his tongue into my mouth. He tasted different to Quinn’s dark, chocolate heat. He was lighter, fresher, like he’d not long since brushed his teeth. But he was equally delicious, equally sexy, equally hot.

Quinn brushed my hair to one side and began to rain kisses onto the supersensitive part of my neck, just below my ear. I groaned in appreciation and curled my fingers into Liam’s t-shirt to hang on. Two pairs of hands began to roam my body, dipping into my waist, smoothing over my butt and thighs, reaching for my breasts.

Quinn’s erection prodded at the small of my back at the same time Liam’s hit my stomach.

I snapped my mouth away. What was I doing? What the hell was going on? My sudden movement caught them both off guard and I was able to slip free.

“No,” I said, retreating at speed. “I don’t know what’s going on here but no...how can you both...?”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Liam said, taking a step toward me.

I backed away, throwing up my hands defensively. “No... I have to go.”

“But where?” Quinn said, shaking his head. “You can’t go back.”

“I don’t know,” I said, aware my voice sounded shaky.

A sudden manic beeping filled the kitchen. Loud and insistent it echoed like the shrill ring of a phone in an empty hall. “Shit,” Quinn muttered. “Worst timing ever.” He reached down to his pocket.

Liam raised his eyebrows at him. “Isn’t it always?”

“What, what’s that?” I asked as I pushed a damp strand of hair from my face.

“My pager,” Quinn said, narrowing his eyes at the small flashing screen. “I have to go.” He walked toward me.

I backtracked and hit the kitchen wall.

“Liam will deal with you,” he said through tight lips. “Anything he says goes for me too.” He looked across at Liam who’d folded his arms and tipped his head.

“I feel the same way he does,” Quinn said.

“But...”

“Don’t stop this,” Quinn interrupted. “Don’t stop this before it’s even begun, Ariane, please... I beg you.”

And then he was gone. His expensive leather shoes tapped over the wooden floor of the living room and then the front door slammed with a thud.

I wrung my hands together and rested my back against the wall. What had just happened? I’d kissed Liam with the same enthusiasm I had Quinn only moments before. How could I have generated so much passion inside my soul for one man and within seconds convert it to another? I’d always been faithful, I’d never cheated on Geraint, never even been tempted. Yet here I was getting mashed between two very aroused men and, I had to admit, enjoying it immensely. Thank goodness I’d come to my senses and stopped before anything else had happened.

“Ariane,” Liam said quietly, “you’re thinking about this way too much.”

I touched my fingertips to my lips, still tingling from where he’d just kissed me into oblivion. “What do you mean ‘this’?” I managed.

“Us, me and Quinn.” He paused. “And you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand?” He stepped closer. “I like you, Quinn’s clearly into you, and from what I just saw and felt—you, Ariane, are into both of us.”

There, he’d said it, the disastrous truth. I was into both of them. How could I not be? Both were devastatingly gorgeous and both had an air of irresistible sex appeal. It was a different nature of sexiness—whilst Liam’s felt gentle, seductive, beautiful and to a certain extent nurturing, there was something about Quinn that felt fast and furious, perhaps even dangerous. There was an element of bad boy unpredictability about him. How could a girl choose?

There was only one option—I would have to leave and not have either of them.

“I have to go,” I said again. “Really, I’m sorry, I can’t stay.”

“No.” Liam frowned, creating a neat horizontal line between his eyebrows. “Leave in the morning if you want, but not in the dark, and...” He had a distinctly sharper edge to his tone. “Leave because you don’t want us, not because you do.” He stepped right up to me and I pressed my back harder against the cool wall. I looked up into his handsome face, which was now stiff with concern. He reached out, cupped my jaw and smoothed the pad of his thumb over my lips. “It’s okay to want us both,” he murmured, his voice softening again. He dropped his head so low I could feel his hot, sweet breath washing over my cheek. “It’s more than okay, it’s what we were hoping for. It’s what we want, what we really want.”

I widened my eyes and stared straight into his. Looking into the dark blue depths was like plunging into the deepest part of the ocean. I felt enveloped by them, sucked in. “You’re not serious?” I asked, searching for signs he was mocking me, that he was pulling me along for a laugh.

“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” he said, running his other hand around my neck and cradling my head. “And Quinn, like he said, feels the same way.”

“You mean, you ‘wanted’ me to be attracted to you both?”

“Why do you think we put that advert in the local paper—‘wanted, girl to share’?” A ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Quinn’s idea, he hoped it would send out a subliminal message to the perfect girl. And it did, here you are.” He leaned his body closer. Heat radiated off him as strong as if I were standing before a raging log fire. “Our demanding jobs and professional focus mean women give up, they soon get bored of hanging around waiting for us. We can’t invest the time and attention we want, so we decided if we shared one woman between the two of us, then that one girl would get showered with attention and affection, there would always be one of us around. Well, most of the time anyway. There would always be one of us to look after her when the other was immersed in work.”

“This is crazy,” I said, resting my palms on the hardness of his chest. I could feel his heart beating fast, belying the cool air he was trying to give off. “You can’t share me, it’s just not right, and, and you hardly know me, how can you possibly think I’m perfect?”

“Mmm,” he said, tipping his head. “Number one, of course we can share you, neither of us are jealous of what the other has, we have a mutual respect that will last a lifetime.” He paused. “I’m not saying we wouldn’t get jealous if someone else set his sights on you.” He twitched his mouth and I felt his body tense. “Like that idiot Jed for example.”

“Jed was never my boyfriend,” I chipped in quickly. “It was a disastrous night that never ended in—”

“Never ended in what?” Liam interrupted in a low voice.

“Sex.” I shivered at the memory. It so nearly had.

“I’m glad to hear it.” A muscle flexed in his cheek. “And number two, not knowing you, not knowing if you’re perfect for us, well, that’s very subjective.” He let his gaze drift down my body but he was standing so close it was impossible to look farther than my breasts. “I would say physically you’re my ideal woman.” He poked out his tongue and licked his lips. “And as for knowing you, what you did by exposing Jed took courage, you sacrificed yourself for others, you did what you believed was right—these are all actions few people would have taken and I admire those qualities in you very much.”

I felt my knees turn watery as his words spun in my head, along with the champagne and the endorphins of my recent orgasm. It was all so much to take in. He thought I was physically perfect, he admired me, they wanted to share me—excitement hummed through my nerve endings at the possibility.

“I also know I want to fall in love with you,” Liam said quietly.

My brain stuttered at the word only used once before in my life. There had only ever been Geraint who’d loved me, no one else, and Geraint’s love belonged to his wife now. I slid my hands up to Liam’s shoulders.

He wound one arm around my waist and pulled me close.

“Love is a big word, Liam, for two people who have only just met.”

“I’m not saying I’m in love with you now,” he whispered. “But I can recognize a woman who has everything I need.” He lowered his head and I watched, utterly mesmerized, as his sensual, soft lips parted. “I know I could easily fall in love with you, Ariane.”

I couldn’t help it, I wanted to kiss him again. I needed to feel those luscious lips take command of mine and taste his divine tongue as it ventured into my mouth. He wanted to fall in love with me. My breasts felt heavy, squashed against his hard pecs and as I pushed up to claim his mouth, my nipples dragged against his t-shirt deliciously.

His hand tightened in my hair and cupped the base of my skull with a firmness that let me know just how much he wanted me. I let out a small moan. Thoughts of sharing and perfectness dissolved. Liam was tracing the contours of my mouth as if I were the most exquisite creature on earth, when in actual fact it was him who was faultless, utterly divine.

“I want you,” he said, barely pausing in his kissing. “Will you come to my bed?”

I’d just had one sumptuous climax with Quinn but my need for another with Liam was too overwhelming to be ignored. I was desperate, even if the circumstances did seem unusual and forbidden. “Yes,” I said breathlessly. “Yes, Liam, yes I will.”