Erica's Choice (10 page)

“I’ll see you guys later.” Corey left the rest of his own beer and departed with no explanation. He felt the surprised stares of his colleagues on his back as he followed the path Griff had taken to the pub’s frosted-glass exit doors.

Corey stepped out into the warm spring night. He scanned the car park for the familiar red Ute and saw Griff standing beside it, digging in his jeans pocket for the keys. Corey headed that way. “You looked at her too.”

Griff turned, surprised. “What?”

“The redhead inside. You looked at her.”

“So?”

“When you thought for that split second it was Erica, did you want it to be her?”

His expression was carefully neutral. “I didn’t care one way or the other.”

“Bullshit. I know you meant it when you said you liked her.”

“I liked fucking her, that’s for sure. She was a hot piece of ass beneath that schoolmarm look.”

The urge to grab Griff and shove him up against the car in anger was swift and surprising. Corey might have done it if he hadn’t guessed Griff was being deliberately vulgar to deflect attention from the real issue. “She wasn’t just a piece of ass, not to me. I don’t think she was to you either. I saw the way you changed when you were with her, the way you smiled at her and took care of her. You told her she was special.”

“I say that to all the girls. Women like to hear certain things from a man after she’s let him screw her senseless. I give them what they want, that’s all.”

“Why are you being like this?” Corey asked, dropping the subject of Erica for now because he saw he wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Why has everything changed between us?”

“Fuck off. Everything’s exactly the same.”

“You won’t look at me.” Corey hated the way his voice caught, giving away how much Griff’s attitude of late had stung. “You treated me like shit on your shoe this week.”

“Didn’t mean to.” Genuine regret laced Griff’s sigh. “I want you to be happy, Cor. You seem to think Erica does that for you, so go for it. Why are you giving me a moment’s thought?”

There were so many truths he could have uttered but fear stopped him giving everything away. “Because Erica wants us both again.”

“She
what
?” Griff’s astonishment pulled the veil from his expression. “How do you know that?”

“I called her. We talked for hours. She’s…amazing.” Thinking about her and all the confidences they’d shared made Corey’s heart gallop, made a goofy smile curve his lips. She’d been lonely growing up, and Corey identified with that because despite being generally well liked he’d never felt understood. She was sweet and generous even after going through the hardship of losing her mother so young, and her aunt so recently. Her Aunt Claire had longed to spend her final days at home, and Erica had taken leave from work to care for her until her dying day.

She carried so much sadness within her, and Corey wanted nothing more than to lift it for her. Well, that and to explore the chemistry between them…between all three of them.

“That’s great, Cor. Go, be amazed.”

The edge to Griff’s words made Corey’s ears prick up. “Are you jealous?”

“Of a phone call? You’re putting an awful lot of stock in it if you think it means she wants us both again.”

“We didn’t just talk.” Recalling the explosive orgasm they’d shared made Corey flush hot. “We
really
talked, if you know what I mean.”

Griff seemed to get the implication. “And you discussed
me
?”

“Yeah.”

“
Fuck.
” Abruptly, Griff turned away and grabbed the door handle of his car. Realizing it was still locked, he swore again and reached for the keys he’d shoved back in his pocket.

“Is that so bad?” Corey stepped behind Griff. Without planning to, he moved closer than he ordinarily would have, like a magnetic force compelled it. “That Erica wants you again? That I…”

When Corey didn’t finish the thought, Griff whirled around until they were almost nose to nose. “That you
what
?”

“I was curious, that’s all,” he burst out. “I don’t know why, I never have been before. But I really liked watching you fuck Erica. I loved seeing how much she enjoyed it. You knew just how to make her go wild and that was so hot. It made me think about
you
, not just her.”

“Corey, shut the
fuck
up.”

The harsh rebuke propelled Corey backward. His heart seized painfully. “You’re not…shit. I thought you were…” His throat closed around the word, the mortification of getting it so wrong. “I thought you were bisexual.”

Griff stared at him levelly while Corey’s heart hammered out of control. At length he said, “I don’t like labels.”

Corey’s breath caught. “But you like blokes?”

“Depends on the bloke.” Griff’s gaze flicked over Corey’s face. “I can swing that way for the right person.”

Dully, Corey concluded, “And I’m not right.”

“Jesus, Cor.” Griff lifted his hand, using it to frame Corey’s jaw. “You’re gonna kill me.”

The contact made Corey’s heart race. When Griff used his thumb to trace the outline of Corey’s lower lip, Corey’s mouth dried out. The look Griff was giving him was the same one Corey knew he wore when he found himself this close to a woman he was dying to kiss.

Did he want Griff to kiss him? The notion sparked confused anxiety in his chest. It also rushed his blood. There was a distinct swelling in the general area of his Levis that couldn’t be ignored. Griff’s nearness, the touch of his hand, aroused Corey.

“Griff.” The name sounded like a plea. “I don’t know what to do with these feelings.”

He reached out and curled shaking fingers around Griff’s shoulder, noticing the flex of solid muscle beneath his palm. Griff’s hot breath puffed into the scant space separating them as he met Corey’s eyes.

He wasn’t going to make a move. Griff waited, the muscles in his face tense, while Corey wrestled with the possibilities. The air around them thickened, became hot and electric. It suffocated Corey, until he felt the only way he could breathe was with Griff’s help.

He inclined his head and met Griff’s lips with his own.

Chapter Seven

Five long years.

Griff had spent five agonizing years stuffing his emotions down, securely caging his sexual predilections and fucking anyone who’d have him, all so Corey wouldn’t guess that
this
was what he’d wanted most. Corey’s mouth, soft and yielding against his. His body, hard and strong, yet trembling with the force of the craving coursing through his blood.

After the first tentative melding of mouths, Griff deepened the kiss with a groan, unable to help himself. Corey responded with a moan that turned Griff’s dick into a steel spike. With a mammoth effort, he kept his hands above Corey’s shoulders, confining his explorations to the silky threads of his hair, the fine line of stubble on his jaw.

Corey didn’t show the same restraint. He grabbed Griff’s back, digging his fingers in like he needed to hang on to something. Once they got moving, his hands were everywhere, his touch frantic. Griff burned beneath the frenetic pace of Corey’s fingers. His abs bunched when Corey touched him there. When he moved lower Griff pushed him back, severing the connection of their mouths.

“No, Cor. Stop.”

“What?”

Corey blinked like a man with concussion. His befuddled expression reminded Griff that Corey was completely new at this, as virginal as they got. As he’d said, he was curious, that’s all. Curious and confused and feeling attacked by feelings he didn’t understand.

Not the time for Griff to take advantage.

With resignation, Griff pushed him away. “That shouldn’t have happened. Sorry.”

“I did it.” Corey frowned. “I wanted it.”

He needn’t remind Griff of that, the evidence had been pretty stoutly pressed against his groin while they’d kissed. They’d
kissed
. As if his sleep hadn’t been disturbed enough of late. Despite the lies he’d tried to tell Corey, Griff hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Erica and wondering if Corey had made the move Griff had told him to. Now he discovered they’d used
him
as a phone-sex aide. He was going to turn into a freaking insomniac. An insomniac with a permanent hard-on for a man who didn’t know what he wanted and a woman playing hard to get.

“You were curious, right?” Griff reminded Corey. “Curiosity satisfied.”

Corey shook his head. “It felt good.”

“Of course it felt good.” Griff smiled, trying to alleviate the tension. “I know how to kiss.”

Corey smiled back in a way that made Griff’s heart turn over. “Maybe you should do it again.”

“No.” Griff moved farther away from him. “I can’t be your experiment, Corey.”

“It’s not like that.”

The uncertainty on Corey’s face told a different story. “You don’t know what you want. A few seconds ago you were mooning over Erica.”

“Over the idea of all three of us, remember?”

“So what are you suggesting? We get together once or twice, have a grand time, then when you’re done with kink you and Erica go on your merry way and be a normal couple?”

“No. I don’t know.” Corey blew out a frustrated breath. “Maybe it could work longer term.”

“We’re all going to play house? Do you know how tricky the dynamics of something like that are?”

“No.” Corey swallowed. “Do you?”

“Yeah, I do.” Griff’s admission was hoarse. “A relationship between two people is hard, Corey. Between three it’s almost impossible.”

“You lived with a couple,” Corey filled in, remembering. “When I first started at Ashton Heights. You were boarding a room from them while you renovated your place.”

Griff confirmed what the look in Corey’s eyes told him he’d already worked out. “I was more than a boarder—but not much, as it turned out.” He feared his smile didn’t appear as nonchalant as he’d intended. “Anna and Jack were already together when I met them, so I should have known how it was going to play out. They were always the main couple and I was an occasional guest star. Only I didn’t realize my role was as insignificant as that until I’d already outstayed my welcome. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Corey shook his head. “We would never do that to you.”

The cynical curve of Griff’s lips hurt his face. Didn’t Corey realize he already was doing it, simply by referring to him and Erica as “we”?

“I would never kick you out of my life,” Corey continued, his words impassioned. “You’re my friend. We’d still be friends, wouldn’t we? No matter what?”

Not necessarily. Griff had considered Jack a close mate as well as a lover, but when he’d lost him as one he found he couldn’t have him in his life as either.

If he did this, he could lose Corey completely. The very thought made his blood turn to ice.

“I can’t risk it, Corey.” Griff fished his keys out of his pocket and clicked the electronic unlocking mechanism. The beeping noise sounded loud in the deserted car park. “If you conduct your little experiment with me and decide it’s not a permanent lifestyle choice for you, I’m fucked. If I get to know Erica better, if I let her in and then she wants you all to herself, I’m fucked. I might want both of you, but if I act on it chances are I’m the one who’ll end up screwed.”

Griff left Corey standing in the car park, staring after him as he peeled out into the street. He wondered if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life, passed up the best thing that could have happened to him. But he’d wanted Corey for so long, risking eventual rejection was not something he relished.

As for Erica…the woman turned him inside out with little more than a glance. But what happened with Anna and Jack had nearly killed Griff. He knew he couldn’t go through something like that again. Getting over one person was hard. Getting over two was murder.

Griff was glad he was about to start a series of night shifts. Lying alone in his bed, imagining Corey and Erica including him in their fantasy phone calls would surely have been the death of him.

I’d love to kiss you between your legs. The idea makes me so horny I can barely breathe. Open yourself wide, Erica. Tell me how you’re touching yourself while we’re both wishing it was my tongue licking inside you.

Flushed, breathless and wet, Erica awoke as the first rays of sun made the sheer white curtains draping her window glow, bathing her bedroom in shades of pink and mauve. Corey’s words, murmured intimately through the phone lines last night, swirled through her mind. The remembered sound of his voice retained the power to ignite her blood, even though she’d brought herself to orgasm while Corey talked her through it.

With a groan of frustration, Erica rolled onto her side and switched on her clock radio as a distraction. The classic Chris Isaak hit that slid into the room didn’t do much to divert her attention from the memory of Corey’s voice in her ear last night…and the four nights before that.

Five nights in a row Corey had called to ask her out, to talk about his day, to seduce her with his words. Erica knew she shouldn’t let things go on this way, but as had been the case that first night, Corey Wachawski had proven impossible to ignore.