Oak, Sophie - Found in Bliss [Nights in Bliss, Colorado 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (15 page)

The door opened again, the bell chiming to let everyone know someone else had entered, but Alexei didn’t look up. He was too busy looking at Holly.

“Mine was not so good, but night is looking up.” Guilt threatened to swamp him. “Some peoples are not happy to see me here.”

She squeezed his hand. “I wouldn’t worry about it. They’ll get used to you.”

He wasn’t so sure about that. Caleb had seemed very sure of his position. “I do not want to harm your place in community.”

She laughed. “Alexei, I think my place in the community is secure. If people don’t like it, they can find another waitress.”

“Why? Are you quitting? No one told me you were quitting.” Caleb’s voice let Alexei know they weren’t alone.

Alexei looked up, and Caleb was standing right there, his shoulders drawn back, a confused expression on his face.

Holly turned to look at Caleb, obviously surprised to see him standing there. “I didn’t quit. I left a little early. Oh, god. Tell me you didn’t do that thing where you walk into the diner like you’re going to blow it up.”

Caleb’s face went blank. “I wish I could.”

Holly shook her head.

Caleb turned to Alexei. “I need to talk to you.”

Holly scooted out of the booth. “I’ll just go freshen up a bit. You two behave.”

Caleb stood there for a moment.

“If you are to tell me to stay away from Holly, I cannot. Even for you. I know I owe my life to you, but I cannot hurt her like that. I don’t want to.” How could he make the man understand?

“What? I wasn’t going to tell you to stay away. Fuck. How do I ask this?” He paced a bit, his boots scuffing along the floor.

“Ask what?” Alexei felt tense. What the hell was going on? After the debacle of this morning’s examination, he’d expected Caleb to utterly ignore him.

Caleb put both hands down on the tabletop. “What did you mean when you said Holly was too much woman for one man?”

Alexei stilled. He’d said that this morning, just before Caleb’s torture. “I meant she deserve to have the men she want.”

“So I’m not crazy,” Caleb said, straightening up. “You said that. And if she wants two men?”

“She is enough women for two men.”

“See, when you say it like that, it sounds like an orgy.”

“No orgies. Just a beautiful woman and two men who could be friends because they care for same woman. Before this place, I would have say two men would fight over woman, but here we don’t have to fight. We can care for her together. It is good, no?”

“I don’t know, but it does open up some possibilities.” Caleb scrubbed a hand through his hair and looked around the bar. It was starting to fill up as the sun set.

“Hey, Doc? You need a beer?” Zane yelled from across the bar.

“Nah, I’m on call. Tell your wife to hurry up and spit that baby out so I can drink again.” Caleb went right back to pacing. Alexei watched him, wondering if he should get up and join him. “If I did this with you, it wouldn’t make us friends.”

Alexei checked his smile. He was pretty sure it would. He’d studied up on Dr. Caleb Sommerville. Since the unfortunate incident that signaled the end of his brilliant career, he hadn’t been in an intimate situation with anyone as far as Alexei could tell. He was betting on the fact that Caleb’s heart was soft, merely packed under layers of protective ice. He just needed to be thawed out.

Alexei knew the feeling. He shrugged. “We do not have to be friends. Merely partners in her pleasure.”

“All right. Just so I have this perfectly straight—you were inviting me to join you in having sex with Holly?”

Sometimes Caleb could be a bit obtuse. “Not just the sex. Also the relationship. You only want to have the sex with Holly?”

Caleb’s face held a hint of a smile. “See, that just sounds weird. I don’t know what I want. I know I want to give her what she needs. I know I want to make her feel as special as she really is. I don’t know if I’m capable of being a normal boyfriend.”

Alexei had thought that was the problem. “She does not need normal. I think she needs something different. So you can relax. You can be as involved as you like. As long as you treat her well, you will be welcome.”

“Why would you offer this? You have to know you could have her to yourself. You could waltz right out of here, and she would probably follow you.”

Alexei doubted that. Holly had a home here and many friends. She was entrenched in the community. “I do not wish to leave Bliss. I want to make home here for myself and any family I become blessed with.”

Caleb went a little pale. He was obviously scared by the idea of a family. “Still, you don’t have to share her. She’ll go with you.”

“Because you do not fight for her. If you choose to fight, she would hesitate.”

“And she would be miserable.”

“Yes, I think she would be. My solution is best. Happy woman. Happy men.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be happy, but it’s more than I expected. I was a little freaked out by her accident today.”

“Accident?” The word fell out of his mouth. “She tell me nothing happened to her today. She say she went to work and then come here for date.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “She lied. She nearly died on the mountainside when the brakes went out on my truck. And before you get pissed off at me, I had that truck serviced last month. There was nothing wrong with the brakes.”

“Did they go out all at once or slowly?” Alexei didn’t like the sound of this. It was very rare for brakes to go out on a modern vehicle with no warning. Suspicion began to creep along his spine.

“I didn’t think to ask her. I think she would have noticed if they were giving her trouble. She was on the mountain. If the truck escape ramp hadn’t been there, if there had been another car on the mountain…” Caleb let the sentence trail off, but the implication was clear.

She would have died. She would have been killed before he’d had a chance to really hold her, to love her.

Alexei could hazard a guess at what had really happened. “The brake fluid slowly drains out. You would not notice it at first. Brakes would work normally. I suspect we will find that computer system was tampered with as well.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Brakes don’t just go out. Do you know of any reason someone would attempt to harm you? It was your vehicle.” Of course, Alexei had stood at the truck. He’d stood there for nearly half an hour before he’d walked into the office. He’d leaned against it, thinking about how to break through to its owner. Surely no one thought the truck was his.

“No. And don’t jump to conclusions. Brakes do go out. We’ll know more once Long-Haired Roger takes a look at it.”

Long-Haired Roger, who was still down a man because he couldn’t deal with Alexei’s past. “We will see. And then we will talk.” The truth of the situation hit him. “She did not tell me, but she told you.”

Caleb’s head shook sharply. “No. She didn’t call me or anything. It was just chance. I found her walking back up the fucking mountain. She’d passed the Harper Ranch, but she didn’t want to bother them. She apparently was going to walk right by Mel’s place, too. She was walking all the way back to Stella’s.”

“This is no acceptable behavior in woman with two mens.” It wouldn’t be acceptable if Holly only had one man, but it seemed especially wrong that she’d cut two men out of her trouble. She hadn’t even tried to call for help. What good were they if she didn’t lean on them?

“No, it is not,” Caleb agreed. His arms crossed over his chest.

At least they were in agreement on one thing. “What are we to do about this situation, Caleb? I do not believe she will listen to a stern lecture.”

“You think I didn’t already try that? After she stopped crying, I yelled for a good thirty minutes. I gave it my all. I can really yell, man. She didn’t seem bothered by it at all. She just apologized and told me she needed to get to work.”

“We need to work on the controlling scenes with Holly,” Alexei explained. This was what he’d wanted. A partner. Someone to discuss strategy with. Someone who knew what it was like to care about Holly.

“Scene control, buddy. We need scene control.”

And it helped that Caleb could translate for him. “I think she deserves spanking.”

Caleb stared at him for a moment. “Have you been hanging out with Wolf?”

“I do not know any wolves. Though I would be all right with a dog.” Why was Caleb talking about pets?

Green eyes rolled slightly. “Dude, Wolf is a friend of mine. He drove me out to the hospital after we picked up Holly. Do you want to know what he said I should do to Holly?”

“If he is smart man, he tell you to spank her.”

“Well, you would think he’s incredibly smart. He also thought I should tie her up and then spank her and then…well, he’s a really creative guy.”

Alexei would like to meet this man. “So, we are in agreement?”

“I’m not saying no to it. I just want to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

Alexei smiled. “She will not be hurt, but she will learn the lesson.”

“To talk to her men.”

“To rely on her men.”

Caleb finally scooted into the booth across from him. “Maybe we should make out a schedule. You know, one of us takes her to work and one of us picks her up. This town can be very dangerous. Serial killers. Biker gangs. Your friends.”

“No more friends. All dead or in jail.”

“You get my point. Bliss can be a dangerous place. And Holly just runs around all on her own. She’s just out there running around like a huge cupcake and all the criminals are really hungry. Do you know what I mean?”

Alexei had no idea, but he nodded anyway. Perhaps Caleb wouldn’t prove to be the best translator.

Caleb continued. “And did you say anything to her about that dress?”

“I tell her dress is beautiful.” Alexei knew how to tell a woman she was beautiful in any language. “Dress is sexy.”

Caleb pinned him with a stern stare. “No. Dress is naked. Dress needs more material. Dress needs a turtleneck. Look, man, if I give on the spanking thing, I want you to stand by me when I tell her to not walk around with my boobs hanging out for every man in the county to salivate over.”

“Our boobs.” Caleb needed to get it right if he was going to ask for solidarity.

“Fine. Our boobs,” Caleb conceded. “The point is those boobs are supposed to be ours. We have to protect them.”

Alexei tried to imagine that talk. It seemed to him that it would end in nonerotic violence. “I worry she take spanking better than a lecture on her clothing.”

“Maybe. But if we’re going to do this, we have to present a united front.”

Great. They would both get slapped. But Alexei smiled anyway. “Yes, we do.”

“Or she will eat us alive.”

Alexei planned on her doing just that, but he didn’t point out the fallacies in Caleb’s plan. He wasn’t about to stop the man now. When Caleb had started talking, he’d talked about just hanging around for the sex. Now they were making rules together.

Yes, Caleb only wanted sex.

Caleb leaned forward. “I don’t know how good I’m going to be at this. I haven’t dated a lot. I haven’t been celibate since my wife died, but I haven’t cared about anyone either. I certainly haven’t been in anything that vaguely resembled a relationship. What if I fuck this up? This is why it’s better if I’m just here for sex. I won’t fuck up sex.”