Chapter One

“You need to get laid.”

Izzy tried to be angry, or at least seriously annoyed, but it was hard to be mad at a man who was in the middle of giving her the best foot and calf massage of her life. Instead, she settled for a grumpy, “Sex is your answer to everything.”

Ryan Sanders chuckled as he placed her left foot on his thigh and picked up the right one. “Not everything. Well…maybe most things. Come to think of it, there’s not much a good roll in the hay won’t cure.” He winked at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Couldn’t tell it by me,” she told him.

He pointed his index finger at her. “See, right there is your problem. You need a man like me. A man who can lay it down between the sheets and keep it up all night. A male that will make you forget that you’re sore, tired, and need to rest. Who’ll have you spreading your thighs wide and creaming with a simple look because the pleasure he gives is irresistible.”

“No one is that good, not even a werewolf, present company excluded,” she told him.

“Of course,” Ryan agreed, a cheeky grin on his face.

As Izzy relaxed against the cushioned arm of the couch, she thought about what Ryan said. Sex with a shifter. If she met one like Ryan, she wouldn’t hesitate. Sweet and loving, though his outward appearance was fierce and tough, Ryan was what her grandmother called ‘good people.’ However, most of the guys she’d met were jerks, and that was being nice.

Just then, she heard a key in the lock. The front door opened and seconds later, Luke stepped into the living room. He had a suit jacket slung over one arm and an expensive but well used attaché case held in the opposite hand. His sandy blonde hair was wind tossed and his blues eyes brimmed with good humor.

“Hey, look. It’s my two favorite people in the world, sitting here waiting for me,” Luke stated as he walked over to greet them.

“Hi, Luke. You still grilling this afternoon?” Izzy asked, pleased as always to see him.

“As soon as I change out of this suit,” he replied.

Izzy received a kiss on the top of her head. Ryan got something a little deeper and more meaningful before Luke headed off to the bedroom to change clothes.

Ryan watched him depart with a familiar glitter in his gray eyes. Then he turned to Izzy. “Like I said, there’s not much a good, sweaty, satisfying round of sex won’t cure.” He made to get up and follow his lover into their bedroom.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Izzy grabbed him by the arm and pulled Ryan back down. “If you two start going at it, I’ll never eat. I’m hungry and too tired to cook.” She’d gone into the restaurant on her day off to help out and ended up working a double shift. Her feet, and the rest of her body, were sore and weary.

He held up both his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t hurt me.”

As if she could, Izzy thought. She nudged him with her foot to pick up the massage where he left off. Ryan stood over six feet tall and had the body of a professional wrestler. Golden brown skin, dark brown hair kept braided straight back, and the prettiest gray eyes she’d ever seen completed the picture.

She and Ryan had been best friends for years, despite his obvious sexual preferences. Something Ryan deeply appreciated since most shifters tended to be homophobic. When he’d met and later married Luke, she’d been happy because Ryan was happy.

She’d come to love Luke, who was human like her, the same way that she loved Ryan. In fact, she considered Ryan to be her brother and Luke her brother-in-law. The day of their wedding ceremony had been special honor for her because she'd been asked by both men to be one of their witnesses. Luke’s brother had been the other.

“Now where were we?” Ryan asked.

“You were rubbing my poor, abused feet,” she reminded and nudged him again with her big toe.

Ryan picked her foot up, pressed his thumb into the arch, and rotated it. “No, we were talking about sex.”

She collapsed onto her back on the couch with a moan of pure pleasure. It was a moment before she could muster the willpower to say, “For sex, I need a man. That’s not something I have.”

“Who needs a man?” Luke asked as he re-entered the room wearing a snug pair of faded blue jeans and a t-shirt that molded to a well-toned chest.

“Izzy does,” Ryan answered.

“You said I needed sex,” Isabel corrected.

“Hey, I’m a man. I do sex, and do it quite well, might I add. Look no further. I have what you need right here,” Luke said, playfully stroking his crotch.

“Oh sweetie, thanks for the offer, but if I took you up on it, I’d blow your mind. You’d no longer be any good for Ryan. All the whimpering and pleading for more of my luscious body would get on my nerves, and poor Ryan would hate me for stealing his man. You know what they say, ‘Once you go black, you never go back.’” She grinned wickedly, waiting for Luke’s response.

“Or, we could just have a threesome. With Ryan there to dilute some of that awesome sexual prowess you’re bragging about, I’m sure my mind would be safe,” Luke said.

“Uh-hmm.” Ryan cleared his throat. “Might I remind you that I’m black?”

Izzy placed her hands over her mouth and opened her eyes real wide in feigned shock. “You are? Oh my gosh, I thought you were white. It’s the eyes, I tell you, and that pretty tan of yours.”

Ryan growled playfully and pummeled her with one of the couch cushions while Izzy shrieked with laughter.

“Since it looks like we won’t be acting out my sex fantasy, while you two children play, I’m going to get the grill started,” Luke stated.