Forbidden Heat (23 page)

What in hell was wrong with her?

“No, Trey,” she whispered. “Don’t—”

But he pushed aside her feeble attempt to stop him from glancing into Jake’s office . . . to see Danielle in an ardent embrace with Jake, their lips melded in a passionate kiss.

“And I thought it was awkward when you caught
me
kissing Jake,” Suzie mumbled.

Danielle heard muffled voices and drew away from Jake. She glanced toward the door to see Trey glaring at her. And behind him stood Suzie.

Oh God, this was a disaster.

“Trey. I . . .”

But his closed angry expression stopped her.

“Danielle, I thought you went home. You said you had some work that came up,” Suzie said, her voice breaking the cold silence.

Danielle glanced from Suzie to Trey and back to Suzie again. Even with evidence right in front of her that Danielle was cheating on her brother with another man, Suzie seemed to be open to an explanation. She seemed to be ready to accept that what was right in front of her eyes was not exactly what it appeared to be.

Just like a true sister would.

Unfortunately, Danielle had no explanation to offer.

She couldn’t expose Trey by saying that she was the glue to reunite Trey with his ex-lover Jake. She couldn’t even say that she and Trey and Jake were lovers in a sexy threesome . . . because that would mortify Trey.

And whatever they’d been in the past, the moment Trey had proclaimed his love for her, when Danielle turned to Jake, she felt as if she was cheating on Trey.

She chewed her lower lip as her heart thumped loudly in her chest.

“Suzie, why don’t you go find Tasha.” Trey bit the words out.

Suzie sent Danielle a quick glance, then nodded and turned around. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway. Trey stepped into the office and closed the door behind him.

“What’s going on?” His gaze shot through Danielle like a spear.

She stood motionless, unable to utter a sound. Trey’s jaw clenched tightly and his hawklike gaze turned to Jake.

“Damn it, Jake. Danielle must have told you what happened last night.”

“You mean, when you told her you love her?” Jake glared at Trey. “And what about me?”

“What about you?” Trey shot back, sparks in his eyes.

Jake’s fists clenched at his sides. “We went into this as a threesome . . . and now you want to walk away with the girl?”

As their anger flared, Danielle’s heart compressed. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

“For heaven’s sake, I started all this to bring you two together again,” she said, “not to drive you apart.”

“What?” Trey stared at her.

“I . . . I wanted to be with the two of you, that was always true, but I have always known that the two of you were meant to be together. I thought that maybe . . . since you both liked the arrangement with me . . . that keeping it going would keep you two seeing each other, and I hoped . . . I really believed that . . . you might get back together.”

Trey turned to Jake. “Did you know about this?”

Jake just shrugged. “That doesn’t matter now.” He turned around and met Trey’s gaze. “I’ve fallen in love with Danielle. And she loves me.”

Trey’s sharp gaze turned to her. “So you believe you love him . . . but not me?”

“I told you last night, you don’t really—”

“Fuck!” He turned back to Jake, anger blazing from his eyes.

Danielle blinked back tears at the animosity flaring between these two men who she knew cared about each other. Trey clung to his concept of loving her only to hide from his fear of loving a man, and Jake . . .

“You claim to care about me, but you’ll steal the one woman I love?” Trey’s jaw clenched.

Danielle blanched.

This morning, she’d been thrilled to find that Jake loved her. She knew in her heart that she loved him. Deeply and truly.

But now a sickening feeling sliced through her. Rather than true love, might it be that he was deluding himself, just as Trey was? Convincing himself he loved her to hide the pain of knowing he’d finally lost Trey?

“What the hell kind of friend—?” Trey continued.

“Stop it. Both of you,” she demanded. She dragged in a deep calming breath. “Please.”

Jake clamped his mouth shut on whatever his response would have been. Trey grasped the back of one of the chairs by Jake’s worktable, his knuckles turning white.

She stepped forward and rested her hand on Trey’s arm. “Trey, you don’t really—”

Trey’s eyes blazed in anger. “You think I don’t really love you?” Trey pulled her into his arms and practically smothered her with a fervent kiss. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel the passion . . . the love between us.”

But she did . . . and that frightened her.

“Trey, until you admit that you can love a man, I can never accept your love . . . because I will always believe you’re just fooling yourself.”

She turned to Jake, unsure that choosing him over Trey was the right decision.

“Oh no, Danielle.” Jake shook his head. “Don’t tell me you doubt what we have.”

Jake strode toward her, and she backed up a step, her hands raised.

“Please, Jake. No.” She couldn’t handle him taking her in his arms and kissing her. “This still doesn’t feel right. If you two could just work things out . . .”

“But that’s the whole point, Danielle,” Trey stated firmly. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Jake and I gave it a good try and it
didn’t
work out. We had a great time while we were together, but something was missing.”

He stepped forward and took her hand, but she snatched it away, unable to bear his loving touch.

Trey’s jaw clenched. “I’m sorry, but it’s not going to work to get us back together again.”

“He’s right.” Jake stepped toward her, his blue eyes stormy. “The time for Trey and me is past, Danielle. Now I love you.”

“And so do I!” Trey interjected. “What we’ve had together—the three of us—has been fun, but now it’s time for you to make a decision.”

Emotions boiled within her. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be responsible for breaking either man’s heart. Couldn’t pick one man if it meant throwing the other into the cold night, like her mother had done to her all those years ago.

They stared at her. Waiting.

Trey stepped toward her. “Danielle—”

“No!” She wheeled around and paced across the office, putting distance between her and the two men. “It doesn’t matter.” She turned back to face them. “
I
don’t love
you.
” She glanced from one man to the other, both staring at her intently. “
Either
of you.”

At that, she strode out the door and hurried down the hall.

As soon as Danielle stormed from his office, Jake’s anger deflated. He stared at Trey, who still stared at the empty doorway.

“Well, that didn’t go very well,” Jake said.

Trey glanced at Jake. The last embers of anger faded from his brown eyes and he nodded.

“Just because she says she doesn’t love me . . . or you . . . doesn’t mean it’s true. With her background, she’s afraid to love anyone.”

Jake nodded and settled into one of the chairs by his round table with a sigh. “She’s right, you know. You need to come to terms with who you are, and what you and I had in the past, before you can have a solid relationship with someone.”

Trey gripped the back of the chair beside Jake’s. “That’s probably true.” He paced back and forth a few times, then turned toward Jake. “About you and me . . .”

As Jake watched him, his heart clenched. Trey had come to some kind of decision. Jake could tell by the determined set of his jaw.

Was Trey going to lay it on the line once and for all . . . that he and Trey were over?

“I think we should have a little talk,” Trey said.

Jake leaned forward. “That’s a good idea. When?”

“Right after I have a talk with my sisters.”

Danielle parked in her driveway and turned off the ignition, then headed toward the house. It had been three days since she’d stormed out of Jake’s office. Since Jake had told her he loved her. Four since Trey had proclaimed his love. In all that time, neither of them had called her, or even e-mailed.

She went into the house and kicked her shoes into the closet, then headed for the kitchen to start dinner. Another meal alone.

She missed Trey and Jake terribly. She opened the freezer and pulled out a frozen dinner, then tossed it in the microwave. Over the past three nights, when she went to bed, she couldn’t sleep. All she could think about in the darkness was how crappy it was to be all alone, especially when she had not one, but two gorgeous men who both claimed to love her.

What she wouldn’t do to have a strong shoulder to lean on. To have a warm, tender—and sexy—man to hold her every night.

She poured herself a glass of water and grabbed the meal from the micro wave. The spicy ginger noodles were tasty, but a little hot.

How could she ever choose between them? And if she did, how could she live with herself after driving a wedge between them forever?

Her doorbell rang and she headed to the door. She pulled it open and her jaw dropped when she found Trey and Jake standing there smiling at her.

Twenty

Oh God. Danielle’s heart melted seeing Trey and Jake again.

“What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think we’d just leave it the way it was, did you?” Jake asked.

“Well, when you didn’t call . . .” Damn, she shouldn’t have said that.

Jake grinned broadly. “So, Trey, it appears the lady has missed us.”

“May we come in, Dani?” Trey asked.

“Of course.” She stepped back.

Trey closed the door behind them. Jake stepped toward her, and she willed herself not to step back. Because she wanted to flee. From the thundering of her heart. From the wild desire to throw herself into his arms. From the desperate need to tell him she loved him and plead with him to take her back.

But then she glanced toward Trey. Her feelings of love for him had not diminished either, despite her constant conversations with herself that he wasn’t ready for love.

Jake slid his arms around her and drew her into his embrace. She stood stiff . . . until his mouth melded with hers, then she became a boneless mass of need. His tongue stroked her lips and she opened to him. His sweet invasion sent her senses into a spin.

She felt Trey’s hands stroke over her back. Jake released her lips and turned her around to face Trey. He drew her into his arms and kissed her, his mouth moving on hers with a passionate arousing insistence. Her tongue glided into his mouth of its own accord. Jake stepped close and kissed her neck. She was sandwiched between the two of them. Pressed between their hard muscular bodies, the heat of them emanating through her, setting her blood to boiling. She could feel their arousal in the form of two swelling cocks. And her own as her nipples tightened to hard beads and her insides melted to liquid heat.

Grasping for some sense of sanity, she drew her lips free from Trey’s and sucked in a deep breath. She summoned an inner strength and flattened her hand against his chest, and pushed eased him away. She stepped from between the two of them.

“I still don’t know why you’re here. I don’t intend to pick up where we left off. Nothing has changed, so—”

“But something has changed,” Trey said.

Her eyebrows arched. “What?”

“Danielle, do you trust us?” Jake asked.

“Of course.” Trust had never been the issue.

“Good.” Jake stroked down her arms—then she realized he was pressing her arms together behind her. A clinking sound followed by cold metal pressing against her wrist startled her, then a loud click . . . click. He’d handcuffed her hands behind her back.

“What the . . . ?”

He pressed her backward until her legs connected with the couch, and she fell onto the plush fabric. Trey grasped one of her ankles while Jake caught the other. She watched Trey wind a smooth rope around her ankle in a couple of quick rotations, draw the length of rope sideways, then slide it around the leg of her end table. Jake worked similarly on her other ankle. They tugged on the ropes, pulling her ankles apart, widening her legs, then tied the ropes.