Magic of Three (9 page)

“But you’d have the other guy to help you keep his attention, if they are bi,” Janice was quick to point out. No way was her friend letting Lisa off the hook that easily. “You just need to learn how to work as a team. Pull together for the greater good. And can you imagine any greater good?”

Lisa reached for her white ceramic cup with a trembling hand and took a deep, bracing drink. Anything to postpone an answer. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the Sixties elevator music jamming in the background and the creamy, sweet caffeine flavor of the latte. How did you respond to a question like that? Tell the truth and let your friend know you’re a bigger perv than she thought? Or outright lie to her face when you know she can read you like a book? Damn girl could scent a lie like a bloodhound. Janice’s ex couldn’t even lie to her, which had ended their marriage. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.”

“You’re just saying that because the thought of it’s turning you on,” Janice replied, coming too close to the truth for Lisa’s comfort. She leaned forward, forcing Lisa to meet her gaze. “Come on. Two incredibly hot guys wanting you at the same time. Win-win situation if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t ask,” Lisa snapped, reaching the end of her personal comfort level. What kind of woman thought about this kind of thing, let herself get turned on by it? She liked sex, enjoyed her body. But something had to be wrong with these thoughts, these fantasies. She might not be a Puritan but a woman had to set some personal limits. Right? “And it’s not like it’s going to happen now. I said they flirted, not that they gave me their numbers.”

“Too bad,” Janice sighed, not a little wistful. But the dreamy expression didn’t last long. She jabbed a finger at Lisa, sending her coffee cup wobbling. “Next time jump on it. You’re single. You don’t have to answer to anyone. You’re a consenting adult. And you’re one of my most sexually liberated friends. You’re disappointing me. I’m setting out into the jungle of singlehood again and my role model’s going all uptight on me. Stop it.”

Lisa narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t believe Janice thought of her like that. Role model? Sexually liberated? What kinda shit was that to dump on a friend? “Just because I don’t believe in depending on anyone else for my sexual pleasure doesn’t mean I sleep around all the time,” she snapped, temper crackling just beneath her skin. “I’ve experimented, yeah. After being married to the asshole for so long I deserved to break out some, try out my wings. Doesn’t mean I went hopping at every crooked finger either. And it doesn’t make the whole mating ritual a damned bit easier.”

A soft frown formed between Janice’s puzzled eyes. “Hell, I wouldn’t ever think that you’re some kinda mega-slut,” she said, sorrow for causing any pain to her friend easily heard in her voice. But it went against her nature to stay serious. “Too many fingers get crooked in this town, Sin City rep in overdrive. I had three guys at work ask me out already and the ink’s barely dry on my decree. Mind you, I’ve got a good job and a paid-for car and home, but the guys sure don’t waste any time. That’s all I’m saying.”

“True,” Lisa agreed, letting Janice’s earlier comments slide. But not without one more warning for her emotionally shaky friend. “That’s why you have to be careful about who you do sleep with. You can be choosy.”

“Okay, okay.” Janice threw her hands above her head with a laugh. “So you don’t sleep with a guy, or two, just because they turn you on. But was it only physical with your two admirers? Nothing else?”

Lisa thought about it. All things considered, it shouldn’t have been a difficult question to answer. She’d barely said two words to the men, knew next to nothing about them. But there had been a connection, a click, even in such a short time. Otherwise she’d have forgotten about them already.

But how to explain that without sounding like an idiot?

“They seemed nice enough, stepping in to help like they did,” she answered, searching for the right words to help Janice understand, as well as to clear her own mind. “Most people stay in their own little bubbles and mind their own business, especially in the city. But other than that, I couldn’t say. It isn’t like we had an in-depth conversation about our lives and goals. It was a quick meeting, less than five minutes unless you count the lap dance at your party.”

“But it sure made an impression on you.”

“Yeah,” Lisa admitted, as much to herself as to Janice.

“So you did think about it? You and the two of them? Doing a three-person version of the horizontal tango?” Janice pried, smirking, not about to let Lisa off the hook with that admission.

“Yes, Mother, I considered it,” she answered with a roll of her eyes. She was tempted to stick out her tongue. Couldn’t Janice leave a woman with an iota of self-denial? “I do have hormones. I am human. But I kept my head.”

“No, you kept your clothes,” Janice said, a flash of fresh humor strengthening her perpetual merriment. “You had a perfectly good office in the back of CM to use if you wanted to. You know, break in even more virgin territory.”

“God, can we get off this subject?” Lisa asked, making a ball of her paper napkin and shoving her Danish aside. “I’m sorry I even mentioned it.”

“Okay,” Janice replied, taking her last bite of bagel and carefully licking the cream cheese from her fingertips before shooting another mischievous glance at Lisa. “But next time two hotties start hitting on you at the same time, possibly as a couple, you have to promise me to at least consider it. I mean, how else am I ever going to know what something as steaming as that feels like if you don’t tell me?”

“I don’t know, try it yourself?” Lisa asked, rocking back in her chair, letting the squeaky wood sound sing.

Janice winced at the high-pitched noise, as Lisa knew she would. But she didn’t drop the subject. “Yeah, as if two guys ever tried to get me in bed at the same time. Guys are asking me out, but not in pairs.”

Lisa picked up her napkin ball and tossed it at Janice’s head. “All right, already,” she said as her friend launched into her trademark hyena laugh. “I get it. I’m lucky. I just don’t know how lucky. I’ll take advantage of the hot, sweaty, monkey sex the very next time it’s offered. I promise.”

“You’d better,” Janice warned, brandishing her plastic table knife in the direction of Lisa’s face. “I’d hate to have to kill you in a fit of jealous rage. I at least deserve to get my kink vicariously.”

“Yeah, well, find a chat room,” Lisa grumbled as she jerked the offending plastic out of Janice’s hand.

“Ooh. Now that’s an idea.” Janice picked up her mocha, savoring her last sips. “Maybe they could tell me all about proper threesome etiquette. I’d share the info, of course. You know, just in case it ever comes up again,” she teased over the rim of her cup.

Lisa shook her head, dropping her chair back on all four feet with a loud thump, causing other patrons close by to look at the mismatched pair, wondering what was happening. “Of course. I didn’t think you’d keep it all to yourself. Not for a moment. You never do.”

Janice nodded. “Good best friends should know where they both stand. At next week’s breakfast, no near-miss stories. It’s either dry spell or gorge-fest.”

“And what about you, oh Horny One?” Lisa prodded, determined not to be the only one dissected at this gabfest. “You’re the one who’s all sex-crazed at the moment, not me.”

Janice shrugged, trying not-so successfully to hide the aching sadness in her expression. Ending a marriage was never easy, no matter what the circumstances. “The ink’s not dry,” she firmly echoed her earlier words. “I’m staying away from all men for at least six months. Gotta get my ex out of my head. I don’t want to end up one of those pathetic women stuck in a rebound relationship with a clone of the jerk she just gave the heave-ho to. So it’s voyeurism and toy time for me. At least for a while.”

Lisa gave her a half-smile and reached over to give her hand a comforting squeeze. “Good idea. Take the time to get your head straight. Just realize, anything you say now will be held against you later. Everything,” she teased, unable to let her happy-go-lucky friend stay so somber and serious.

“You mean you’ll be feeding me my own words again. I should be so lucky to rate those words of wisdom. I mean, if I need advice about threesomes, you’ll just have to shove me back on the straight and narrow.” Janice slapped a hand over her heart, gasping in mock terror. “Oh the horror. The horror.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. That was so like Janice. Melodrama to the max.

“Well, to change subjects, do you know anyone who does good bodywork?” Lisa asked.

“Doesn’t sound like a subject change to me,” Janice teased, her smirk firmly back in place.

“Janice, please.”

Her friend shrugged and blew a pale pink curl back in place. “What, did something happen to your baby?”

“Yeah,” Lisa growled, anger still lurking just below the surface. “Some asshole at the club ripped into my paintjob with profanity last night. I told you I shouldn’t leave it there but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

Janice tapped her finger against her pursed lips in studied consideration. “Hmm. Vandalism versus DUI. Money for repairs or a big girl in uniform searching your various orifices. Let me think, which is worse?”

“Okay, I wasn’t fit to drive last night, but you should see what this guy did to my paint job.” Lisa’s face pinched, her jaw clenching. “He carved words in it, and not very nice words either. So now I’m stuck driving around with ‘pervert’ and other sweet little sayings for all the world to see. I’m about ready to take some sandpaper to it myself. Do you know anyone who can fix it or not?”

Janice blinked and then shook her head. “Not offhand. My wonderful cheating ex handled car stuff. I’ll ask my brother, see if he knows anyone.”

Lisa put her trash on her tray, along with her half-eaten pastry. “Thanks. As it is, I’m going to get a rental. Least for the time being. Can you imagine what the customers must’ve thought yesterday?”

“Probably wishing they knew you better,” Janice quipped, mouth twitching with barely contained amusement.

Lisa snorted, her lips trembling against the urge to smile. “You really need to work on that gutter mind of yours.”

“Don’t worry. I am. I expect to reach rock bottom soon.” Janice swallowed her last bit of bagel and pointed at Lisa’s tray. “Are you going to eat the last half of your Danish?”

Lisa shoved the plate at her friend and stared out the window. Only Janice could make her stop feeling like the world was about to end.

After finishing their breakfast, Lisa and Janice headed for their cars. They’d meet up at the gym like usual, chatting on the treadmill for a half-hour or so before going their separate ways. As Lisa followed Janice out the door, a man caught her attention. She couldn’t quite put her finger on the problem, but something was off about him.

He sat at one of the umbrella-covered tables outside by the doors, watching everyone as they went in and out. He wore a dark suit and held an open newspaper in his lap. A cup of coffee sat untouched in front of him, along with a cinnamon roll. Just an average, ordinary, bland business type, nothing to give Lisa the willies. No reason for her stomach to clench and her heart to shoot to her throat.

But she could swear he’d been staring at her moments before, that he’d been waiting for her. Paranoid much, maybe, but that was the gut feeling sending adrenaline rushing through her body. He didn’t walk after her. He didn’t leer at her. His eyes didn’t eat her alive, didn’t follow her every move or track her to her car. He didn’t make any moves toward her at all. But her creep radar shrieked.

She turned to Janice, wondering if her friend had noticed anything…off…about the guy. But her normally hyper-jerk-sensitive friend seemed oblivious, chatting away about all the fun she was planning on having now that she was free of the shackles of marital oppression.

But Janice never glanced at the man. Just another invisible city dweller. Not cute enough or weird enough to rank notice.

So why was he raising Lisa’s hackles?

Lisa glanced back in his direction as she opened her car door. He picked up his paper, covering his face as he read. Had he been staring at her before? Was he watching her?

Was she losing it? Or maybe she’d been living in this city too long. People getting on her nerves. Needed a vacation. That kind of thing.

No one was after her. No one had a reason to be.

Chapter Eight

For Julian, the piped-in bubble gum pop music and clangs and grunts of his fellow iron pumpers faded to a buzzing annoyance as the two women walked in the gym, causing quite a stir with the men pounding away around him. A whipcord mass of energy with golden-blonde hair sporting blue and pink streaks, followed by a platinum-haired bombshell who’d look perfect gracing the pages of a Forties pin-up magazine. A more different-looking pair becoming close friends he couldn’t imagine. But they fit together, complemented each other. Were perfectly content in one another’s company.