Take This Man (15 page)

They
were sitting at a little table in a darkened corner. Adam’s hand caressed her
knee. Elyse moved her legs apart slightly to give him better access, and he
took full advantage, skimming his finger midway up her thigh and down again.
Teasing her.

He
lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered, “If you could do any guy in here,
who would it be?”

Elyse
laughed. She’d had several cocktails and was enjoying herself. She felt
light-headed and a little woozy, not only from the alcohol, but from the way
Adam had danced with her, spinning and twirling her like on those TV dance
shows. For someone who claimed to hate dancing, he was pretty good at it.

She
took another sip of her vodka and cranberry. Now what was his question again?
Oh yeah. “You, of course. Duh.” She grabbed his chin and smooched him noisily.

Adam
rubbed his lips against hers. “No, I mean—somebody else.”

“What?”
she laughed again. “You’re crazy.”

“Come
on,” he urged. “Let’s play a game. Just for fun. You up for it?”

It
was their code. They often issued each other this challenge. She and Adam
sometimes played little games to put them in a sexual frame of mind and get
each other hot. Although between the alcohol and the way he was looking at her
tonight, Elyse hardly needed any sexy games to get her in the mood.

“Bring
it, Vostek.”

“Okay.
If you weren’t with me. Who’d you go home with?”

She
gave him a teasing sidelong look. “Who’d you go home with?”

He
snorted. “No one here looks half as good as you.”

His
words warmed her. “Uh-uh. No fair. You’ve got to pick somebody. How about the
girl at that table over there?” Elyse discreetly indicated a slim girl with
purple hair and heavy black eye makeup.

“The
Goth?” Adam smirked. “No thanks. There’s probably not an inch of her body that’s
not tattooed or pierced. I bet she can’t go to the airport without setting off
every alarm in the place.”

“Well,
what about the redhead sitting next to her?”

“Do
I look that desperate? Her tits are practically falling out of her dress.”

Elyse
elbowed him. “Don’t be disgusting. They’re called breasts.”

“You
have breasts,” he murmured. “Believe me, those are tits. She’s gonna poke
somebody’s eye out in a minute. Sleazy.”

She
drew her fingernail up Adam’s thigh. “I thought guys loved sleazy.”

He
drew himself up in mock indignation. “Please. I have standards.” He stilled her
hand. “Enough. Anyway, I asked you first.”

His
persistent fingers dipped under her short skirt, tickling and teasing.

They
did things like this sometimes, whispered naughty secrets to each other.
Sometimes they took turns naming which famous movie star each of them would
sleep with, if the chance arose. Or sometimes they limited it—for example, “Which
of the characters from
Mad
Men
would you have sex with?”

But
these games were simply silly fun—they always made it about actors or
celebrities or television characters. Never people in their circle or anyone
they knew. It was the first time they’d ever played the game like this.

But
Elyse wasn’t about to chicken out. Anyway, she trusted Adam. She began to relax
and get into the spirit of it.

“What
about the guy over there?” Adam smoothed his hand up her leg and nodded toward
the dance floor to a man with spiky blond hair.

“Ugh.”
She screwed up her face. “No way. He’s too into himself. Thinks he’s God’s
gift.”

“How
come?”

“Well,
look at how he’s dancing. Like his partner’s not even there. He’s practically yelling
‘look at me, everybody.’”

“Hmm.”
Adam nuzzled her neck as his hand moved to her pussy and his middle finger
flicked her clit. She drew in her breath with a hiss, and bit her lip. “What
about the one near the bar?”

He
indicated a big man leaning against the bar with dark shaggy hair. The arms
crossed over his chest looked as thick as tree trunks. Elyse swallowed hard.

Adam’s
finger danced up to her sweet spot, and rubbed just a little. “You think he’s
sexy?”

“Yeah,
but scary, too,” she answered, her voice trembling. The guy had a scowl on his
face as he looked around the dance floor.

Adam
leaned close again. “Maybe you like scary.” He nipped her earlobe.

She
jumped. “Ow! Not that scary. He looks like he’d drag a woman off by her hair.”

He
dipped his hand and teased her clit again. “That could be fun.”

“Oh!
Adam, don’t.” She tried to scoot her chair away from his. “People can see.”

“It’s
dark, and nobody’s looking at us, anyway.” He scraped his own chair closer. “Let
me put my arm around you like this. Now turn this way. It just looks like I’m
holding you.”

Elyse
did as he asked. Who was she fooling? She wanted to give in. It was fear of
being observed that made her protest. But that same fear also sent a thrill
zinging up her spine.

He
had teased her to the point where she was primed to go off at any moment, and
his naughty suggestions, though embarrassing, made her even hotter.

Adam
thought he was in charge of this game, but maybe she could change things up and
turn the tables on him. As Elyse opened her legs, allowing him to play with her
again, she whispered, “That dude over there. I’d do him.”

Adam’s
fingers faltered. “Who?”

“Sitting
at the bar. In the nice suit. He’s hot. I’d sleep with him in a second.” Ha ha.
Adam thought he was so clever, but two could play this game.

“Yeah?
He looks kind of slick if you ask me, but if that’s what you go for—”

“Uh-huh…”
She was finding it hard to speak. Adam’s finger kept circling her clit over her
panties.

“You’d
let him do this to you, huh? You’d like that? You’d like for him to touch you
like this?” His voice was hoarse.

Elyse
hid her face against his shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Maybe
you’d like him to do this, while I do this.” Adam pinched her clit with one
hand while his other hand pinched her nipple.

Elyse
sank her teeth into Adam’s shirt as she came, spasms rocketing through her.

“Jesus…”
she whispered, as she came back to herself.

“You’re
telling me,” Adam rumbled. “I think you took a chunk outta me there.”

“Sorry.”
She pulled back from him in a daze. Though he’d made her come spectacularly,
emotionally she felt off-center.

To
say he’d surprised her was a complete understatement. Adam had never indicated
he’d imagined her with another guy, watching her or sharing her. Her heart
thudded in her ears. Was that something he wanted?

And
Elyse had surprised herself as well. She couldn’t say she’d never imagined
being with two guys at once, but it was only a fantasy. It wasn’t anything she’d
want to do for real. It was the unexpectedness of the suggestion, and its taboo
aspect, that made her come so hard.

Adam
was watching her closely, concern and maybe something else in his gaze. Had he
been surprised as well? “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.
Okay.” Her voice shook as she reached for her cocktail, and swallowed the
remainder of it. Pushing her hair back from her face, she placed the glass back
down on the table top, her hand trembling so she almost overturned it.

“Whoa.
That was…” She didn’t know how to finish the statement.”

“We’re
playing, that’s all,” he assured her, his voice low. He let his fingers thread
through her hair and drift down her back.

Yes,
playing. They’d just gone a little farther than usual this time. But it was all
right. They could always pull back when they wanted. And she was safe with
Adam, even though at the moment she felt strangely distant from him.

“Let
me get you another one of those,” he said, nodding at her empty glass.

Yes.
She wanted another drink. Her buzz had faded and she wanted it back. She wanted
this strange feeling to disappear and to recapture her mellow mood.

“Sure.”
She smiled at Adam and handed him the glass. He gave her a peck on the lips as
he pushed out his chair.

Elyse
shook her head to clear it. She felt shaky, but not because of too much
alcohol—it was from unease, and maybe even a little fear. Adam was in a strange
mood tonight, and she didn’t know what was driving him.

When
she glanced over to the bar where he stood, her heart stopped. He was speaking
to the man she’d pointed out earlier, the one he thought looked slick. As
though they felt her gaze on them, the two men turned and looked at her.

Elyse
stopped breathing. What the
hell
was Adam doing?

Chapter
Eleven

Adam
jerked back as if he’d been struck.

Jason
groaned again and gagged, holding his hand over his mouth while he ran to the
bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

Adam
and Elyse glanced at him simultaneously, then looked back at each other.

“Get
real, Adam,” Elyse said. “You can see Jason and I are both fully dressed. Does
it really look like we were doing the down and dirty?”

“Maybe
I arrived a little too early. Before the main action started.” He gestured with
his chin to the bottles by the bed. “Looks like you two were doing your best to
get into a party mood.”

Muffled
sounds of gagging and heaving came from behind the bathroom door.

“Yeah,
some party,” she muttered. “Look, something happened today. Something very
upsetting.”

Adam
took a step toward her, his features softening with concern. “Upsetting? To
you? What happened?”

“Not
to me, to Jason. He’s been hurt. He needed me. That’s why I’m here. I
completely forgot ab—”

“He
needed you,” Adam interrupted, his voice dull. “It’s always about Devereaux,
isn’t it?”

“He’s
my
friend
,” Elyse snapped. If her eyes had been lasers, he’d have been
reduced to ash. “He’s the only reason I came back to this crappy town.” She was
glad when Adam flinched at her words. Good. She’d hurt him. She wanted to hurt
him the way he’d hurt her—no,
destroyed
her—two years ago. “I told you I’d
be spending time with him, and you were okay with that.”

“We’d
agreed you’d see him, yeah, but you also agreed you’d be in
my
bed at
the end of the day. Not rolling around in his.”

“Oh,
we’re back to that.” Elyse was so full of disgust she couldn’t even look at
Adam. “You never answered my question before. Are you pissed that I’m here, or
pissed you weren’t invited?”

“For
fuck’s sake, Elyse—”

“You
hypocritical son of a bitch! You are so full of shit!” she screamed. Her face
was on fire, and her eyes burned with tears of rage.

But
she would
not
cry, hell no. She would not show him how he had devastated
her.

“How
the fuck do you justify barging in here and acting like some goddamn caveman
around Jason, when you couldn’t
wait
to throw me at him two years ago?”

Adam
went still. The blood drained from his face. “I thought we weren’t going to
bring up—”

“Well,
I want to bring it up! I want to rub your fucking face in it. You
shared
me with him. It was
your
idea.
You
suggested it. You pushed for
it. And now you come in like
you’re
the injured party,
you’re
the
one who’s being cheated on. How fucking messed up is that?”

Adam’s
lips barely moved when he spoke. If Elyse was fire, he was ice. “You didn’t say
no.”

****

The
two men returned to the table and Elyse’s pulse began to flutter. The man from
the bar had looked good from a distance, but up close he was absolutely
gorgeous. Dark hair, brilliant blue eyes, and when he smiled briefly, deep
dimples on either side of his mouth.

Elyse
smiled back at the man, who settled in the chair across the table. Adam took
his own seat next to her. She slid Adam a look that said
what’s going on?

His
large hand caressed the back of her neck. “Babe, this is Jason Devereaux.”

“Yeah…hi,”
Elyse murmured, her nervous gaze bouncing back to Adam.