With Strings Attached (9 page)

She could have him. She knew he wanted her. Maybe not right this minute. But while he was there, sometime, they were going to get together. She knew it. She wanted it too.

But then she looked at Matt, at the fiery intensity in his eyes and the bond between them made her heart trip. He wanted her too. And a fierce warmth bloomed in her chest because, dammit, she cared about him. And—she closed her eyes briefly against the surge of lust—she wanted him too.

What kind of girl was she, to stand in a room with two guys and imagine having sex with both of them? She licked her lips and swallowed hard.

Then Matt, trust him, broke the tension. “Jesus, I thought for a minute I was gonna have to look at your dick,” he said to Dylan. “The sight might scar me for life.” He picked up the platter with the steaks. “Let’s get these babies cooking or we’ll be eating at midnight.”

He headed toward the door and Corey watched him walk away, watched his tight butt, the hard muscles of his broad back and shoulders. She turned and looked at Dylan, who arched one eyebrow. “C’mere,” he said softly. He extended a big, tanned hand. She moved toward him, not taking his hand, but when she got close enough he rested his hand on her hip. “You feeling that too?”

She didn’t need to ask what he meant, wasn’t going to play games. “Yeah.”

He nodded and she watched his face, his sexy, smiling mouth, the way his dark eyelashes brushed down over eyes silvery-gray like the ocean on a cloudy day, then up. Her body melted toward him. He lifted his other hand to her cheek, rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip. “What are we going to do about this?”

Now she did need to ask. “What do you mean?”

“I mean about you…and me…and Matt.”

She blinked. “Um…”

“I know you two keep saying you’re just friends,” he continued, his voice silky smooth and low, his hand still on her face. “But there’s an awful lot of heat between you.”

“Yes.” She closed her eyes and turned her cheek farther into his palm. “I don’t want…oh geez. This is kind of complicated.”

She opened her eyes and met his gaze again. His lips curled into a wry smile. “Yeah. It is. Dammit.”

She licked her lips again and moved away from him, tugging her T-shirt down.

“He’s my best buddy,” Dylan said.

“Mine too.”

Their eyes met and held in a stretched-out moment. She bent her head for a moment, then lifted it and smiled brightly. “I better start these potatoes.”

She lifted the pot onto the stove with a clang, barely aware of what she was doing, her mind and body buzzing with sexual electricity and confusion. She and Matt were just friends. They’d agreed, after that night they’d ended up in bed together, that there would be no strings attached to their relationship. They’d hang out and have fun like they always had, and sometimes if they both felt like it, they’d have sex. Which turned out to be quite often. She sank her teeth into her lower lip.

But they’d been clear that they were each free to see other people. So if she wanted to have a little fling with Dylan while he was there, that was okay. She didn’t need to worry about Matt or hurting his feelings.

But she
was
worried about hurting his feelings. Her insides twisted into knots, she closed her eyes and tipped her head back, hands clenched into fists on the edge of the stove. Why was she so worried? He wasn’t in love with her or anything. He could just as easily be seeing some other girl.

She knew he wasn’t.

Taking a deep breath she turned back to face Dylan, who had his head bent, focused on cutting up the vegetables for Matt to roast on the grill. His eyes flickered as she turned and she knew he’d been watching her.

“What can I help with?” she asked.

He pushed a red pepper toward her. “Here, you can cut this up.”

They chopped vegetables and Matt came back and helped, as usual vaporizing any lingering tension with a couple of joking remarks, and they all had another beer and stood around the barbecue while Matt cooked. And Corey could almost forget that moment of intense fever-like heat that had been burning up the kitchen.

“Where’d you learn how to cook so good?” Dylan asked Matt as they began to eat, still sitting on the deck. Matt didn’t have a dining table so they all had plates on their laps.

“Just figured it out,” he said. “It’s not rocket surgery.”

Corey looked up at him and burst out laughing. “Rocket surgery?”

He grinned and she knew he’d said it on purpose. God, he made her laugh. “It is good,” she said. “These veggies are awesome.” He’d chopped up some garlic, added some fresh herbs he’d bought at the farmers’ market and splashed in some olive oil before tossing it into a stir fry basket and cooking it on the grill. Fresh, with a nice roasted taste.

“How’s your steak? Big enough for you?”

She smiled as she cut off a small piece. “No.”

“You like it big?” Dylan said.

She eyed him. Oh boy, here they went again. “Yes,” she said primly, looking down at her steak. “Size does matter.”

Dylan choked on a laugh and reached for his beer.

“Don’t even think of whipping your dick out,” Matt warned him. “She’ll take your word for it that you’re hung.”

“Maybe I want to prove it to her,” Dylan said with an evil leer that made her laugh. Oh man.

The sexy banter continued as they ate, continued as they washed dishes in Matt’s small kitchen, Dylan clumsy on his crutches and continually bumping into her, which she began to suspect was not accidental. Then, when Matt had left the room, he pinned her against the counter with his hips and smiled down at her. “Having fun?” he asked.

She smiled too. “Yes.”

“Good. Me too. I’ve been wanting to do this all day.” And he bent his head and kissed her mouth.

His lips were warm and gentle, opening on hers, and his tongue slid into her mouth, then withdrew. Her insides immediately turned to liquid heat, pooling between her legs in a heavy ache of need. She set her hands on his chest, strongly muscled beneath the soft cotton of his T-shirt.

He’d just deepened the kiss when Matt’s footsteps sounded in her ears and she jerked her mouth away from Dylan’s to look up and see Matt standing in the door of the kitchen. Looking at them. His mouth was a straight line, and she caught a flash of something before he lowered his eyelids to half-mast. “Oops,” he said. “Sorry to interrupt.”

She gazed at him across the room, her heart thudding in her chest with both lust and…something else. She licked her lips, sucked the bottom lip in, then licked it again. She looked up at Dylan, who in turn looked between her and Matt. A frown crinkled his forehead and he released Corey, taking a step back on his good leg. He pursed his lips.

Corey leaned back, hands gripping the counter on either side of her. Then she saw both guys’ gazes drop to her breasts, which were pushed out by the pose she was in. She wasn’t doing it on purpose and she almost dropped her arms, and then thought…what the hell. They were both giving her hot, I-want-to-do-you looks and hell, she liked it. But it was a little awkward with both of them right there. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to choose?

She wanted to keep her friendship with Matt. It was important to her. And even though they’d said they were free to see other people, she had this unpleasant feeling that sleeping with Dylan would change things between her and Matt.

Dylan was only here for a few weeks. She wasn’t looking for a relationship. She could do without sleeping with him. But on the other hand, why shouldn’t she have a hot little fling with a guy she was attracted to?

But that flash she’d seen in Matt’s eyes looked almost like…hurt. And she didn’t want to hurt him. She
so
did not want to hurt him.

“I think I should go home now,” she said in a husky voice.

Both men focused on her. Matt bent his head briefly. “Corey.”

“Don’t go,” Dylan said.

She looked at Matt. If he didn’t want her to sleep with Dylan, she wouldn’t. Would he tell her that?

“Corey,” he said again. “What do you want?”

Her bottom lip trembled and her insides quivered. She tightened her hands on the counter. Thoughts whirled through her head, possible responses. What should she say? How should she answer that? And then she knew. The truth. If there was anyone she could be honest with, it was Matt. “I want you both,” she whispered.

Matt’s eyes flickered, and when she switched her gaze to Dylan, he said, “Holy shit.”

She blinked at him uncertainly. Had she managed to piss them both off? This still felt really tense.

“Both of us,” Dylan repeated. He glanced at Matt and the corners of his mouth lifted. “Well, I’m up for a threesome.”

“A…
what
?” Corey’s mouth fell open and her heart lurched to a stop.

He grinned. “A threesome. Isn’t that what you meant?”

“Uh…” Holy hell, no! A threesome! She’d never in her life done anything like that. She pressed a hand to her chest where her heart had resumed beating at a rapid pace.

Matt watched her, with a steady gaze, not smiling.

“Oh, hell,” Dylan said. “Matt will never go for that, babe. You know he’s Mr. Nice Guy.”

She watched Matt’s eyes shift again toward Dylan. He snorted. “Yeah, that’s me. The nice guy.” He turned his eyes back to Corey. “Is that what you want, Corey?”

She said nothing. She still hadn’t denied that’s what she’d meant. Because shockingly, the idea turned her on. Come on, who hadn’t fantasized about something like that? She’d never in a million years ever have thought something like that would actually happen, but yeah, she’d thought about it. Once. Or twice.

Would Matt do it? She searched his face for a clue about what he was feeling. He was managing to hide whatever that was pretty damn well. If she told him no, that wasn’t what she’d meant, where would they be? Right back where they’d started, right back where she’d suggested she’d better go home because there was no good way to get out of this.

But if she told him yes…they could all have what they wanted.

A wave of heat washed over her, so intense she felt lightheaded. She closed her eyes. Opened them. She let the hand she’d pressed to her heart trail down, fingertips between her breasts, her palm brushing over one hard, sensitized nipple. Again both men’s eyes tracked down along with her hand, lingering on her breasts.

It was risky. If she’d worried that sleeping with Dylan would change things between her and Matt, what would a threesome do? But it seemed like the best answer to this sexy dilemma. Their friendship had survived having accidental sex together. It would probably survive this.

She took a deep breath. “Yes,” she whispered. “That’s what I want.”

Chapter Six

Matt’s heart pounded in his ears and his cock was so hard it hurt. He could not believe what was happening, could not believe he’d just heard Corey say that. Was she fucking serious?

He’d been ready to bow out. He and Corey were “just friends”, as pretty much every girl had ever told him she wanted to be with him. He wasn’t an exciting guy, a sexy athlete like Dylan, or a bad-boy rockstar wannabe like the guy Lysett had ended up with. He was just your average nice guy, like everyone kept telling him over and over. He’d sensed the attraction between Corey and Dylan since the moment they’d met, felt it building up hotter last night, and now to inferno levels. So if they wanted to get it on, he kinda felt he didn’t have much choice but to step aside and let them. He had no right to tell Corey not to do something, even though for a moment she’d looked at him as though she’d do whatever he said. Nor did he have any right to be jealous.

But a threesome…whoa. That was fucking hot.

Dylan didn’t think he’d do it. Apparently thought he was a chickenshit pansy ass or some such shit, that he wouldn’t participate in something so badass. Well, fuck him.

Okay not literally, though they were apparently about to get into bed together. It was Corey he wanted to fuck.

If Corey wanted it, he was going to damn well do it.

He smiled at her and her tense expression eased into…arousal. “C’mere,” he said softly, extending a hand to her. She drifted across the kitchen to him and he pulled her into his arms in a warm hug. She melted against him in that way that made him burn so hot. He bent his head and murmured in her ear, for only her to hear, “You sure, Cor?”

If she wanted to back out, he wanted to give her the chance.

She nodded, her head pressed against him. Her body quivered in his arms. Matt looked over the top of her head and met Dylan’s eyes. Dylan grinned, clearly excited by the idea. No doubt he’d done this a time or two. Matt knew what kind of life Dylan led. That time he’d visited him in Hawaii it had been an endless string of tanned girls with hot bodies in bikinis. Threesomes and orgies were probably old hat for him. Matt had never had a threesome, but by God, he wasn’t going to let Dylan show him up, not here, not in bed, not anywhere. They were friends, but come on, it was his sexual prowess at stake here, with Corey, who despite being “just friends”, he cared a helluva lot about.

“All right then,” he said. He slipped a hand under her chin and turned her face up to him. He needed to see her eyes, to know she really wanted this. He looked deep into those green eyes and saw hunger and heat there. When her hips moved against him he knew she was hot and Christ, that made him hot too. He too pressed his hips forward, saw her pupils dilate, her soft lips part and he bent his head again, this time for a kiss.