Four Play (24 page)

Next, Rhys picked up her cell phone, which sat beside her laptop. He scanned her recent incoming and outgoing calls. Her mother, her aunt, her cousin, Jeremy, Tucker, and himself, period. If she had a lover, she wasn’t communicating with him, and that wasn’t Kelsey’s style.

Shit. Now what? Maybe she kept a journal. He looked around the little room, rummaged through her desk drawers. Other than bills and house papers, they were empty. Maybe the diary was in her bedroom . . .

Tiptoeing across the hall, Rhys could hear Kelsey murmuring something in more of those worshipful tones that made him grit his teeth. Lucky bastard, Jeremy.

With a shake of his head, Rhys slipped into Kelsey’s private domain and spied her little red bikini on the pale carpet. His cock hardened in a painful rush. She’d looked fabulous in it, laughing, playing hostess, so natural and unaware of how gorgeous she looked with dancing dark eyes and her riot of brownish-red curls. He knew she looked even better without the bikini.

“No, sir. Really, I’m tipsy. And tired. I promise I’ll be in early.”

Damn it, Jeremy hadn’t been able to get her out of the house. So now his time was
really
limited. Rhys forced himself to focus.

He looked across her dresser, scattered with car keys, jewelry, and other knickknacks. Nothing that stood out. Her rumpled bed was unmade, her tiny nightstand covered by a little lamp, a candle, and what looked like a fairly racy romance. Did that cover have a woman with more than one guy on the front?

As he reached for it, he heard Kelsey say, “Yes, I know you’ll reprimand me, sir. Whatever you feel is necessary, I understand.” She paused. “Good night.”

Then she slammed the phone in its cradle and began stomping down the hall, her footsteps echoing across the hardwood floors.

Hide!
He hustled into the shadowed confines of her walk-in closet and scrambled behind her dresses along the back wall, praying she wouldn’t find him before he could get out. Otherwise, he’d have to have a good explanation for being here. Which he didn’t. And there would be hell to pay.

Kelsey entered her bedroom with a shaky sigh and darted straight for her nightstand. Through the crack in the door, he could see her wrench open a drawer. She withdrew a pair of rumpled paper bags and tore into them. As she extracted the items, Rhys clenched his fists to hold in his groan.

Her battery-operated rabbit and a slender, curved vibrator.

She was going to masturbate.
Fuck!

Plopping her items on the bed, Kelsey tore off her cover-up, put her iPod buds in her ears, switched the MP3 player on, then lay down. Her skin looked so flawless and fair against the dark sheets. Her breathing picked up, lifting her chest with each inhalation, her hard nipples stabbing the air. Rhys got hard all over again. Yes, he loved watching her through her window, but to be mere feet away from her? Surely, he’d spontaneously combust.

Before moving next door to Kelsey, he’d preferred tall, skinny girls with straight hair and sun-kissed skin. One look at Kelsey and he’d barely looked at another woman. When he’d met her, heard her laugh, experienced her warmth, he’d been a goner.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Time to call the others for a backup plan. It went against his grain to let the others in on her private moments, many of which he’d watched from his bedroom window, dick in hand . . . but he might not get out of Kelsey’s house undetected without their help. Damn it.

He hit Tucker’s speed dial. Not a second later, her friend picked up. “What did you find?”

“Hang on a second,” he whispered, not knowing how loud her iPod might be.

Then he flipped over and dialed Jeremy, who answered immediately. “Well?”

Rhys conferenced the men in together. “I didn’t find anything helpful, and now, she’s masturbating. I’m hiding in her closet, trying to figure out how in the hell I’m going to get out without getting caught. Ideas?”

“Masturbating?” Tucker choked.

“Yeah. She’s naked on the bed with her sex toys. And she looks flaming hot.”

“Goddammit,” Jeremy growled. “Don’t look at her.”

“Bite me,” Rhys tossed back. “She’s ten feet in front of me. Of course I’m going to look.”

“Would she hear the phone ring?” Kelsey’s boss snapped. “If I can get your eyes off her by calling again—”

“She wouldn’t hear it. She’s listening to her iPod. But I can’t walk past her; she might see me.”

Moonlight and the nearby streetlamp filtered light through the slats in the blinds. Rhys watched Kelsey preparing to get down to business. He had to restrain a groan at the sight.

“Oh, hell! She’s cupping her breasts.”
Her voluptuous, full, mouthwatering breasts.
“And she’s pinching her nipples. Damn . . .”

Jeremy groused out a curse. “If you’re going to watch this, you’re going to share details. Every one of them.”

The tone set Rhys on edge. “Fuck off.”

“I helped you get into her house with a phone call and a plan,” Jeremy argued. “Tucker lent you his key. If such a gorgeous sight is going to fall into your lap, you’re going to share with us. Or we won’t help you with an exit strategy.”

As if he hadn’t proven it time and again, Jeremy displayed once more why he was one of the most sought-after attorneys in Texas. The man could flat argue with anyone and win.

“Fine.” Rhys ground out between clenched teeth. “She’s scraping her nipples with her fingernails.”

Rhys could feel their excitement over the phone. He felt the same keen sense of arousal . . . which only multiplied when Kelsey slid a hand across the flat of her abdomen, caressing down to the inside of her thigh. Her legs parted. He swallowed.

“Touch me ...” she murmured. “Yes.”

She dipped her fingers inside her pussy, and Rhys nearly lost his mind.

Tucker choked. “D-did she just beg someone to touch her?”

Fucking hell . . .
“Yeah.”

“Any idea who she wants doing the touching?”

“Where is she imagining someone touching her?” Jeremy barked.

Before he could answer, Kelsey lifted her fingers from between her legs, and Rhys got a good glimpse. “Fuck, she’s wet.”

“You see her pussy?” Jeremy demanded.

“That’s a terrible word,” Tucker chastised.

Jeremy scoffed. “You like
cunt
better?”

Rhys ignored them. “It’s her fingers. They’re wet.”

Tucker swallowed. “She really touched herself?”

“Dude, she does it all the time.” Rhys rolled his eyes.

Her friend let out a shaky breath. “I think I’m going to explode.”

Easy to relate to that feeling, especially when Kelsey began a slow, rhythmic rubbing of her clit.

“Please . . . ” She groaned. “Like that. Oh, yes . . .” Her hips lifted. “I want it . . .”

“Damn it,” Jeremy snarled. “I’ll give it to her. Relentlessly. Until she begs me to stop. When she does, I’ll just give her more.”

Not if Rhys had anything to say about it. That would be
his
privilege.

“But I can’t,” she whimpered. “Too much . . .”

Damn it, who did she picture sharing her pleasure with? What the hell did her imaginary lover do? Say?

A moment later, she grabbed the slender wand, flipped it on, and eased it inside her. Her back bowed off the bed as it disappeared inside her body.

“Oh my God ...” she cried.

“What?” Tucker and Jeremy both snapped.

“She’s using her vibrator.”

Kelsey punctuated Rhys’s announcement with a cry of pleasure. It filled the room, heating his blood. On the phone, Tucker groaned. Jeremy’s silence had its own sound of careful restraint. He hoped neither of them had taken their cocks in hand. The last thing he wanted was to hear some other guy get off to Kelsey’s cries of pleasure.

Though he had to admit, he was tempted to stroke himself in time to her moans.

With one hand, she thrust the slim wand in and out of her hungry body, the sounds of her juicy flesh pushing the edge of his restraint. Finally having a soundtrack to this visual was killing him.

With the other hand, she groped for her rabbit. She found the base first, flipped it on, then clutched the buzzing purple toy and dragged it between her legs, settling it right over her clit.

“Yes! God, yes! I need it! That’s so good . . .”

“I can’t listen to this and do nothing. I’m coming over there,” Jeremy growled.

Everything inside Rhys protested. “Stay where you are, damn it. You’re going to help me get out of here when she’s done, but this isn’t a party.”

She gasped. “Please. Oh God . . .”

“I can’t take it,” Tucker muttered. “What is she doing?”

Flushing. Arching her back. Biting her lip. Clutching her toys. Moaning. And . . .

“Coming.”

“I love you . . . you . . . you ...” Kelsey panted.

Then she rent the air with a sharp, high-pitched cry that went on, became a low growl of satisfaction that nearly had Rhys climaxing in his jeans.

“I’m going to paddle that woman’s ass for this torture as soon as I get my hands on her,” Jeremy promised.

“You can’t hit a woman!” Tucker protested.

Before Rhys could say that he wouldn’t mind seeing Kelsey with a pink bottom, her boss answered. “How likely are you to forget the sound of her orgasm? Ever? How many times will you play it in your head the next few days? Weeks? Months? How many times will you masturbate to it and wish to God you were hearing it in person because you’d given her that much pleasure? How many times after your self-induced orgasm will you be bitterly disappointed that you were only torturing yourself with the sound because you don’t know who the fuck she’s fantasizing about when she brings herself to climax?”

No one said anything for a long minute. Rhys could hear Kelsey panting as she slowly resumed normal breathing. On the phone, her other two admirers each struggled for self-control.

“You’re right,” Tucker finally said. “I’ll never forget that sound. And since Rhys didn’t find anything in his search, we still don’t know who she wants.”

“Or who she loves,” Jeremy added. “Are you sure that neither of you knows about another man in her life?”

“We’re the only men who ever visit her house,” Rhys said. “I have nosy Mrs. MacDermott across the street watch her when I’m at the station, and she always clucks that even her fourteen-year-old granddaughter has more boyfriends than Kelsey.”

“She sees no one at work. I intentionally keep her far too busy for an office romance.”

“I talk to her folks every other week or so,” Tucker said. “They don’t mention a boyfriend. Believe me, I ask. And as far as I know, except her dentist appointment last week and grocery shopping, she hasn’t been anywhere.”

“Maybe her lover is purely imaginary.” Rhys winced as he said it. That would pretty much kill their collective hope.

“Or it’s one of us, and she just can’t say it,” Tucker suggested. “I’m wondering . . . Kels and I have been friends for so long, maybe she thinks bringing up sex would be awkward. Or how does a woman tell her boss that she’s fallen for him? Or a neighbor she’s never even dated? For all that Kelsey is independent, I don’t think she’s brave with her feelings.”

“Another something we have to thank that prick Alex for,” Jeremy muttered.

“Totally,” Tucker agreed. “So maybe . . . we just have to keep trying individually to reach her.”

Jeremy hesitated. “I still think Rhys’s idea of getting her drunk would be more effective.”

“I won’t take advantage of her when she’s tipsy.” Tucker’s disapproval blared through the phone.

“I just want to ask her questions, not tie her to the bed and fuck her all night . . . though that plan has a lot of appeal.”

“Kelsey and bondage do
not
belong in the same sentence.”

Jeremy snorted. “That’s your opinion. Which, by the way, is wrong.”

“Look, I know the nasty bedroom games you play, but Kelsey is much too sweet to be aroused by that crap.”

The way Jeremy laughed wasn’t nice. “Then why is she wet at work all day long? And why does she get wetter the more I command her?”

This argument was going nowhere.

“Stop, both of you,” Rhys insisted.

“Let’s give it a week or so,” Tucker suggested. “We could all question her separately to see what we can learn, then touch base again.”

“We can meet at my office some late afternoon when you’re both available.”

“Won’t Kelsey be there?” Rhys pointed out.

Jeremy shot back, “I’ll demand she do something in another room.”

“Demand?”
Tucker clearly didn’t like the sound of that.

“I’m good both at being her boss and a Dominant. She’ll comply.”

“She’s not a damn dog.”

Rhys sighed. “Stop it! We’ll each try to pry the answer out of her separately. We’ll meet up at Jeremy’s office next week and be
totally
honest about the outcome. I’d still rather see her happily settled with one of us than some loser we don’t know who could hurt her.”

“All right,” Tucker grumbled.

Jeremy’s voice was firm. “Agreed.”

Tucker sighed. “What do we do if, by next week, we still don’t know anything about Kelsey’s feelings?”

Rhys paused. Jeremy sighed. Together, they said, “We get her drunk.”

 

 

The honeyed bliss of release was gone when Kelsey opened her
eyes. The tingling in her arms and legs receded, her heartbeat returning to normal. That electric, so alive feeling slowly dissipated, leaving something jagged and empty in its place.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. And she was alone. Again.

Shoving aside her toys, she tore out her earbuds, drew her knees to her chest, and hung her head. How long could she stay in this limbo, desperately wanting three men and having none because she didn’t know what they really felt and was too afraid to upset the status quo? Because she couldn’t risk choosing one and potentially having the other two disappear from her life?