The Playboy's Ménage (The Billionaire Bachelors Series) (11 page)

Holly moaned softly. He was naked and aroused. How was she supposed to think with that kind of distraction? “These are beautiful.”

He clenched his fists at his sides. “It’s something to keep my hands busy.”

Her heart was racing. She knew she’d exposed him, made him feel vulnerable. She moved closer to him until she was standing beside the table, her hand reaching out to caress a small sculpture of her naked body. “I can’t help being flattered. I do love your hands. I wish I could see things the way you do.” She forced a smile. “I bet you have vaults filled with paintings of naked women you’ve known. You certainly have enough material to be inspired by.”

He frowned. “Do you think I took them down before you got here? That you seeing this was something I planned?” He shook his head, running his hands through his hair and watching her with those impossibly blue eyes. “I suppose that’s better than you thinking I’m obsessed with you, isn’t it? That yours is the only face I see when I need comfort. Me being a lewd, manipulative playboy is easier to swallow.”

She backed away, holding up her hands. “Peter? I was just—”

He reached out and gripped her shoulders. “You just want to ignore what’s right in front of you. You want your memorable ménage with the royal rocker and the rebel. Material for your research.”

She gasped when he dragged her toward him and pressed his lips hard against hers. He was angry and hurting, she could feel it. He was also undeniably hard. Her body reacted, unable to help responding to his. Unable to resist rubbing herself against his erection, begging for more.

The need that consumed her was overwhelming. Peter pulled back and looked down at her, his cheeks flushed and lips full, so beautiful she suddenly wished she could draw. If she could, she would draw him right now. That expression of carnality and desire.

He let go of her shoulders and grabbed onto the fabric of the white shirt, buttons flying and rolling along the floor as he tore it open and pulled it off of her, phone and all.

“Peter…” She thought of Henry not being here. Of the rules Peter had made. But she couldn’t deny how turned on she was. Couldn’t deny how much she wanted him.

“I know,” he snarled, responding to her expression. “But I need—”

He didn’t finish his sentence, pushing his art to the side before lifting her onto his worktable and spreading her legs. Holly groaned when he lowered his mouth to her breasts, his fingers gliding down her stomach to slip through her curls and inside her. “Oh, Peter.”

He was sucking on her breast, pressing her clit with his thumb. Two fingers thrust into her sex and pressed against that special spot he knew she loved, and she whimpered. “Yes. Peter, oh that’s good.”

He looked up at her. “You did say you liked my hands.”

“I love them.”

“I need more,” he growled. His took away his touch and picked her up, whirling her around until she was bent facedown over the table, her breasts pressed against the wood and her toes barely touching the floor.

“Peter, what are you—
Oh my God
.”

He filled her with his cock, one hand between her shoulder blades, holding her in place. “I need this, baby. I won’t come, I swear. Fuck, I can feel everything.” He pumped his hips and shuddered. “It’s so good, Holly. You’re so wet for me. Just for me.”

Holly was on fire. She couldn’t think, couldn’t hold back. She wanted him more than she wanted to be safe. “Feel me, Peter. Feel how much I want you.”

He groaned as if he were in pain and slung his hips against her with deep, powerful thrusts. “Holly,” he whispered raggedly. “My Holly. You have me, baby. Take it. Fucking take it all.”

She reached for the edge of the table, holding on as it started to rock with the force of his movements. So deep. He was so deep inside her. Her eyes were open and she could see an image of her face mid-climax on the other side of the room. He knew her. He knew how to bring her that kind of satisfaction. “
Peter.
Peter, make me come for you. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”

When her climax came it brought tears to her eyes, blurring her vision and making her blood pound in her ears. He was everything. Everywhere. Peter. She barely heard his shout as he pulled out of her body, but she felt the warmth on her hip as he came.

She was shaking so hard she felt like she might shatter. When she regained her ability to think, Peter was rocking her in his arms and apologizing over and over again. Why? Why was he sorry for that?

He hadn’t worn a condom.

She stiffened in his arms and he held her tighter. “I know. I swear to you, Holly, I’ve never in my entire life been that careless. I don’t know what happened. You were here, in this room and I…I lost control. I’m so sorry.”

She believed him. Peter was too smart to be that reckless. Except he had been. He’d almost…what if he had come inside her? What if he hadn’t been in control enough to pull out in time? Just because he was healthy didn’t mean she couldn’t have gotten pregnant.

Holly started to shake again at the thought. A baby. She couldn’t let that happen. Babies came with happy endings, the kind she didn’t have.

“Holly, talk to me, please.”

The loud knock on the open door made them both tense in surprise. “Remember me?” Henry’s voice sounded strained, so much so Holly was almost afraid to look at him. “Peter, we’ve been ordered to make a morning appearance and save Dean’s bacon again. Get dressed—Roy and Tracy are waiting outside.”

“Fuck,” Peter swore. “Henry, man I’m—”

“If you say you’re sorry for breaking your own rules, I’ll have to kill you. Dress. Now. And consider us even after this. My guilt is gone.”

Henry turned away without acknowledging her presence and Peter kissed her forehead before releasing her reluctantly. “Holly…”

“Go.” She bent down to grab the torn shirt, covering herself as best as she could. She wanted to go to Henry and make sure he was okay. She didn’t want to feel guilty for what had just happened. Not when it had made her feel so special. So treasured. “Your friends need you.”  

He didn’t move. “Promise me you’ll be here when we get back, Holly.”

A feeling she didn’t want to explore gripped her heart and squeezed. “We still have a month and a half, Dick.” She smiled when he raised one eyebrow at the nickname. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The smile that lit his eyes made her breath catch, and then he was gone, leaving her alone in the room filled with pieces of her. She hoped it wasn’t a preview of what would be left of her when their time was up.

“Still pissed?”

“What do you think?”

Peter sighed and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. They’d dropped off Tracy after their group intervention with Sara and Dean, and Roy was taking them back to his estate. Back to Holly and the mess he’d left behind.

“Can we talk about this, Henry? I wasn’t planning it. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Henry pulled off his sunglasses and stared at him. “Which part? The part where you were fucking Holly without protection? Or the part where you were fucking Holly without me around when you wouldn’t let me do the same?”

“Both.” When Henry shook his head, Peter leaned forward, his hands between his knees. “I don’t know what came over me. I deserve whatever you have to say, but I really need you to say something. You’re my best friend, man. Will you have the fucking decency to tell me off? Yell at me. Punch me. Tell me you want equal time. You offered to leave me alone with her a few weeks ago. Is that what you want me to do?”

Henry pressed his head back against the seat. “Man, you are dense, aren’t you? I don’t want to yell at you. Okay, I do, but only because I’m still hard as a fucking rock from catching the tail end of the show. Sexual frustration makes me grumpy. And you should have used protection, idiot, because nothing sends a girl like Holly running quicker than a baby scare…unless it’s an engagement ring.”

A baby. A baby with Holly. Jesus, he was a sick, sick man. The idea of her carrying his child didn’t send him running in the opposite direction. It made him desperate to have her again. Made him blissfully fucking happy. “Fuck.”

Henry pointed at him. “That. I saw that. And that’s why you’re dense. We both know why you did it. We both know how you feel. At least, I do. Hell, I might be the only one in our trio who really knows what’s going on. Who’s willing to embrace what’s happening. With great power comes great responsibility, I suppose.”

Peter snorted. “Really? I think you’ve been reading too many comics, buddy.”

“You love her. You always have, and it’s only gotten stronger since she’s been with us. That’s why you held back, and why you didn’t hold back. Why you’ve been acting like a bipolar lunatic for close to two months now. You. Love. Her.”

He couldn’t deny it. He loved Holly. Completely. And Henry was right—looking back, he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t. Holly had her own reasons for running, but his were clear. She was in his heart, and when she left she’d taken part of him with her. Without her there’d been nothing to do but keep moving from place to place, woman to woman. No reason to stay.

She wasn’t going to stay.

“What about you?” He challenged Henry. “Since you seem to know so much about how I feel.”

“I love her too. As much as you do. It’s insane how much.” He laughed without humor. “Last year, when my littlest nephew got sick and I left the tour for a few weeks? I saw it. My brother and his wife and children have something I want. I don’t mean marriage, picket fence, and a dog. I don’t mean the perks that come with being in the royal lineup. They’re a family. The love between them connects them, makes them more than they would be alone. It’s beautiful and I don’t want to live without it anymore.”

Peter studied Henry. “That’s why you started writing to her?”

He nodded. “I thought about it, about how long we’ve been wandering without her, and I was tired of waiting. I thought about you too, you know. I knew how you felt about her, knew it couldn’t work without all of us, but I thought you weren’t ready to admit it yet. It took me until now to see that I was wrong. You’ve been ready, you just had no idea what it was you were ready for. Dense.”

“What was it?”

Henry’s smile was almost sad. It made Peter uncomfortable and hopeful at the same time. Bastard. “Family, Peter. Love and family. You, me and Holly.”

“I may not be as clever as you are, Super Henry,” Peter responded sarcastically. “But even I know that’s an unusual equation that rarely equals a family. Certainly not one that would be accepted by the masses that read the tabloids.”

“You don’t care about that, Peter,” Henry snorted. “All you care about is what Holly will think.”

“There’s that too. You said it yourself. She’d run if she caught the scent of commitment. You and I can love her all we want, but in the end, she’ll be the deciding factor. As far as she’s concerned, this is a research project with a safe time limit.”

Henry made a face. “Sorry about that. It was a desperate addition to the plan.”

“Why are you sorry? It was my idea.”

“So you think.”

Peter glared at Henry. “That was
your
plan?”

He shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t expecting her to throw down like that. It stunned me for a minute, I have to admit. But yes, my devious master plan was to find something she’d want to write about and research for three months that would put her in our immediate vicinity long enough for us to seduce her.”

“Good plan.”

Henry sighed. “I thought so. But now we’ve only got six weeks left to convince her she can’t live without us.”

Peter’s fist clenched. The idea of their project ending, of her leaving, put a knot in his stomach and a bottomless hole in his heart. “How the hell do we do that, Henry?”

“You’re the genius. You figure it out.”

The car stopped and both men were still lost in thought when Roy opened the door. He smiled in concern. “I thought you’d be happy to know I got a phone call as I was pulling into the drive. Andrew says he got a heads up from accounting that Mr. Warren got on the elevator with Ms. Charles slung over his shoulder like a weeping sack of potatoes. So the plan worked.”

Peter grinned at Roy. “That
is
good news. About time someone had some.”

When he and Henry got out of the limo, Roy took his hat off and held it in his hands, waiting.

Henry tilted his head. “What is it, Roy?”

“I just wanted to tell you that you’re a good man in my book, Mr. Vincent. You too, Mr. Faraday. You did a great thing today. I’m honored to work for you, and I wish you both the kind of happiness Mr. Warren must be feeling at this moment. You deserve it.”

“Thank you, Roy.” Henry reached out to shake his hand. “We’re working on it, believe me. And it looks like Mr. Faraday might cry, so be on the lookout for a big, fat summer bonus from me for that alone.”

Roy snorted and slipped his hat back on. “I think I’ll drive back to Mr. Reyes hotel and see if he’ll be wanting a lift to the airport tomorrow.”

“Good man.”

They watched him drive away, both grinning like idiots. “He was carrying Sara over his shoulder. At the office.” Peter didn’t know Dean had that much rule breaking in him.

Henry nodded. “And they lived happily ever—”

“Shut up.”

“I know. I don’t want to jinx it either.”

They heard the front door open and Holly’s voice call out to them from behind it. “Is Roy gone?”

“Yes,” Peter called back. “Why? Are you hiding from Roy?”

The door opened wide and Holly came out to stand on the front steps wearing a smile…and very little else.

“Jesus, Betty,” Henry groaned.

Her hair was in pigtails. She had on pink sneakers and white ankle socks, and was carrying a small backpack over her shoulders. That was all. The sun was shining through the trees onto her bare skin, and Peter knew he was never going to forget this image. Before he died, the last thing he would see was Holly standing naked in the sun.

“I was just thinking.” She shrugged and her breasts jiggled in a way that made Peter’s heart stutter. “It’s a beautiful summer day and we’ve hardly been out of the house, which is insane and sad when you think of how many acres this estate has. When I saw the gardeners leave, I thought it would be safe to have a picnic.”