Rowan struggled against Graham’s hold as soon as they were outside, which added fuel to the fire that was Graham’s temper. He’d always thought of himself as relatively even-tempered, but this girl somehow knew exactly how to rile him up.
“I oughta beat your ass for that stunt, woman. What the fuck were you thinking? How the hell did you get from my cabin to the clinic? Fly? Wait—don’t answer. I don’t want to know, because then I will beat your ass so red you won’t be able to sit for a week.”
She stopped struggling. Smart girl. Graham strode through the dark, up to the door of his cabin, and wrenched it open. “Now let’s try this again.” He stalked through the front room, into the bedroom, and dropped her, not as carefully as before, onto the bed. “You … stay put. Sleep. Get me?”
Graham didn’t know what pissed him off more—that she’d disobeyed a direct order, which didn’t happen often to him, that she’d probably injured herself more by hobbling over to the clinic on her own, or that Ro’s face had been as white as the sheet covering the injured woman when she’d caught sight of her bruised and battered face. Graham had never wanted to wrap someone up and protect her from all of the bad shit in the world before, but he was becoming acquainted with the feeling. Rowan didn’t need to see that. If the little bit he’d learned of her character already was any indication, she was going to beat herself up for not mounting a rescue effort herself.
Graham leaned over Rowan on the bed, where she was now propped up on the pillows. His bed. His pillows. Graham braced himself with an arm on either side of her body and spoke quietly.
“I know what you think you were doing, but you shouldn’t have. You hurting yourself worse won’t help her any. You need to worry about Rowan.” When he finished speaking, his face was only inches away from hers. He could feel her breathing, which had quickened. In the yellow flicker of the oil lamp, her pupils were dilated and Graham’s gaze was drawn to her tongue as it darted out to swipe across her bottom lip. He groaned and started to pull away. His movements were halted when Rowan’s hands tangled in his hair and dragged his head down to her mouth.
Rowan didn’t know what kind of craziness had possessed her, but in that moment, she had to kiss him. She had to have his lips on hers, if only to block out reality for a minute. As wrong as it seemed, his caveman-like actions, his protectiveness, and his quiet words, had her body softening and readying itself for him.
And although Ro might have started out in control of the kiss, he didn’t let her keep it. One of the hands that he’d used to brace himself had moved to cradle her face, angling her so he could cover her mouth more fully with his. He slanted his lips as his tongue sought entry. He slid his knee between her legs, and his hard thigh rubbed against her center, sending flares of pleasure though her, making her gasp. When she opened, he conquered. Tongues tangling and body clenching, Ro dug her nails into his scalp. Graham growled, pulling her up and into him. Then a throat cleared, Graham jerked away, and she was grasping at air.
“You don’t usually start without me, G,” Zach said, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.
Ro froze. The breath in her lungs caught, and she was choking on his words.
“I didn’t tell you that you could start without me,” the seductive voice drawled from across the room.
“Not again.” Ro didn’t realize that she’d whispered the words out loud until the gazes of both men fix on her.
Zach moved toward her first, reaching his hand out, but Ro scuttled back to the headboard, out of his reach.
“Don’t touch me.” Her voice quavered. She needed to pull herself together. They weren’t Charles and Evelyn. Trying for a more even tone, she said, “Just back off for a minute, okay?”
Zach dropped his hand and stepped back. Something was all sorts of wrong here. Rowan was pale and shaking. Just minutes ago he’d watched her latch onto Graham and hold on for dear life. It’d be one thing if she wanted Zach to leave, but Graham, too? That didn’t make any sense.
Speaking quietly to her, like he would to a spooked horse, Zach said, “It’s all right. I’m backing off now. No one is going to hurt you here.”
“It’s not that ... Just give me a minute,” she said, already sounding a little steadier.
Zach glanced at Graham, but Graham looked just as confused by her one-eighty.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? You weren’t scared of me before. And you didn’t look too scared of Graham just now. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
“It’s nothing. Just a bad memory.” She looked up and met Zach’s gaze. “I’m not a slut. I don’t know if I’m wearing a sign that’s only visible to guys that says: ‘Loves long walks on the beach and gang bangs.’ But I’m really not like that.”
Graham spoke up. “We don’t think you’re a slut. Or into gang bangs. Zach was just joking around. He’s a jackass. Ignore him.”
That statement pissed Zach off, but now wasn’t the time to argue. He hadn’t been joking around. He liked this girl. Liked her spunk and her attitude. And Graham clearly liked her too, as was evident from the way he was letting her hump his leg when Zach entered the room. Zach and Graham had been sharing women since that crazy night they graduated boot. Hell, they’d picked up a woman at the bar together just a few weeks before the grid went down. It worked for them. Graham didn’t have to actually speak to the women, and Zach charmed them while capitalizing on Graham’s dark and dangerous vibe that never failed at luring them in. Most women said it was the most intense sexual experience they’d ever had. It wasn’t like Zach didn’t bag chicks on his own. But he wasn’t entirely certain Graham did. Which made what he had walked in on all the more surprising. And honestly, it had made him happy as hell. Graham had never formed an emotional bond with any woman they’d been with. Ever. Zach supposed that being abandoned in a cheap motel room by your mother as a kid might stunt your ability to form emotional connections with women. But apparently not with this one. This girl, who’d been dropped into their lap only hours ago, seemed to have already gotten under Graham’s skin. Which worked for Zach, because even before the world went to hell, Zach had wanted a woman. A woman who he and Graham would permanently share. Zach knew Graham had been aware of his desire, but never verbally acknowledged it and certainly never displayed this level of interest in any of their hookups. But this girl could change everything. She could be the one who finally got Graham to give an actual relationship a chance. Hell, they were all envious of what Jonah had with Allison. And the little rugrat they were raising. Zach wanted that for himself, and he wanted to share it with his best friend. But Zach had yet to find a woman who could entice Graham into a relationship. Until Rowan. And that was why Graham’s comment pissed him off.
Zach gave Graham the look his comment deserved. Fucking asshole.
If his plan had a chance in hell of working, he needed to understand what had set Rowan off. So he would take a risk and hope he didn’t freak her out again. He moved closer and sat on the end of the bed. When she looked at him and didn’t jerk away, a flare of hope warmed him.
“Why would we think that, sweetheart?”
“Because of what you said.” Her voice was strong and sure now.
“And you said not again.” Zach didn’t like the ideas that were swirling in his head. “Did someone ... hurt you? Or make you do something you didn’t want to do?”
Zach saw Graham move closer and was shocked when he sat down on the bed next to where Rowan was sitting against the headboard, arms wrapped around her knees. He was more shocked when Graham reached for her and pulled her close to him.
Oh yeah, G was already in deep with this one, whether he’d admit it or not.
“You give me a name, and I will make sure he dies slowly,” Graham said.
“That’s not necessary, really. I think karma will take care of Charles and Evelyn.”
“Wait. What?”
“Charles ... and Evelyn?” Zach asked.
“Look, it was a seriously fucked up situation. And before the shit hit the fan with the rest of the world, that situation was basically responsible for destroying my life. What you said just brought back something I’d rather forget.”
Ro couldn’t believe she was telling them this. Actually, she couldn’t believe Zach’s words had triggered that much of a reaction in her. They had just been so close to the same words that Evelyn, the Mistress of Evil—as Rowan had begun to refer to her—had uttered as she walked into the bedroom where Ro and Charles were about to make love. Except that wasn’t what it was for Charles Leonard Ashford III. Despite the old money name and pedigree, he’d only been a pawn. Evelyn had been the spider, and Rowan had been the fly. Charles had just been the bait in a fucked up trap.
It had all started one night at a closing dinner. Rowan had been leaving the restaurant, when a partner had asked if she wanted to share a cab. She’d thought it was odd he was even at the dinner, because she didn’t recall him working on the deal. But as a second year associate, Ro wasn’t about to say no. He’d been charming and flirtatious when he’d tossed the cabbie some bills and asked him to wait so he could walk Ro the thirty feet from the curb to her building. Rowan had thought the move strange, but didn’t dwell on it. A few days later, he’d dropped by her office and brought her a latte and stayed to chat. The next evening, while working even later than normal, he’d stopped and asked her out for a late dinner. Ro had been flattered. They didn’t work in the same practice area—with Rowan a corporate associate and Charles a litigation partner—so Ro didn’t think it would raise too many eyebrows. The firm didn’t forbid dating co-workers, just frowned on it when you reported directly to the person you were dating.
Charles was attractive, in a three-piece suit kind of way. He was tall, with a runner’s physique, expensively cut blond hair, and pale blue eyes. And she had thought, naively, that he was interested in her. Although, she supposed, he probably had been at least somewhat interested in her. She hadn’t imagined the bulge in his Brooks Brothers suit pants when he’d walked her to the door of her building after dinner and kissed her for the first time. She hadn’t imagined the desire in his eyes when, after several more late night dinners, he’d finally talked her into coming home with him. And he had definitely been interested when he’d thrust himself against her while they were tangled up in his bed, about to have sex. And that erection hadn’t deflated when Evelyn stood in the doorway, naked, but for the black strap-on harness and giant black cock jutting out from it. Ro shivered at the memory. As far as unpleasant surprises went, that was a doozy.
Graham squeezed her hand.
“Sorry, I just ... I had a rather unpleasant surprise once. The closest I’ve ever come to a three-way, and you could probably say that it scarred me for life.”
Graham’s grip tightened. Before he could speak or jump to anymore conclusions, Ro quickly said, “It’s okay; it wasn’t like I was raped or anything. I just got a little too up close and personal with the pointy end of a strap-on that was connected to a rather evil woman—Evelyn—who used a sorry excuse for a man—Charles—to get me into her bed so they could both fuck me. When I declined, rather vehemently, she didn’t take it well. She decided to destroy my career, which at that point, was pretty much my entire life and the culmination of everything I’d been working for since high school. To make matters worse, I wasn’t the first associate they’d run that game on. Like I said, unpleasant surprise, but I definitely won’t be making that mistake again.”
Ro was surprised at how easily that came out. Granted, it was the extra-abbreviated Cliffs Notes version, but it was more than she’d told anyone else. So much had happened in the last week that it made Evelyn and Charles’s little game seem so trivial.
What still bothered her, however, was how easily she had fallen for it and how, even though her life had been work, and her co-workers had been more acquaintances than friends, not a single one of them had stood by her when Evelyn destroyed her reputation at the firm. Evelyn had claimed that Ro had tried to steal her fiancé, even though Rowan had no idea if she and Charles had actually been engaged. And if that wasn’t a bad enough rumor to start, Evelyn followed it up by telling everyone that when Charles told Rowan he wasn’t interested, Rowan had planned to blackmail him to get ahead at work. Which made no fucking sense! The rumors spread fast and hot, like wildfire during a drought. Rowan couldn’t walk from the elevator to her office without looks of disgust. She had refused to cower, because she’d done nothing wrong … except be stupid enough to think that Charles’s interest was legit. Evelyn had demanded she be fired immediately, and the managing partner hadn’t yet announced her fate. Before the plane crashed, she’d been fairly certain that day was going to end with her carrying a file box of her things out of the building, escorted by security.
Ugh. Whatever. It was over and done with, and she was never going back. Not that there was anything to go back to anyway. Not a lot of legal work was getting done without any working electronics. People had way bigger problems to deal with right now. Like survival.
When she finally looked up, she realized she had somehow ended up in Graham’s lap, and Zach was standing right next to the bed, his mouth gaping open.
“You want to share a few more details?” Zach asked.
“Umm ... not really. I think I covered all of the high points,” Ro said.
“Sweetheart, you can’t just drop a bomb like that and expect us to nod like we understand. That’s a new one for both of us …”
Ro smiled. “You and me both. But it’s over and done with. I’m sorry for freaking out.”
“What if we swore there’d be no strap-ons in sight? Would the idea of a three-way really be that horrible?” Zach asked.
Ro’s gaze shot to Zach and then swung around to stare at Graham. “I thought you said he was joking? You two … wait … are you …? Good God, I really have no gaydar.”
“No. We’re not gay,” Graham replied. “We just have a kink. And, at that moment, Zach was joking. He knew you weren’t ready to climb in bed with us. Trust me, that’s not something we spring on women. We’re all about full disclosure up front.”
“So you’re saying ... I mean ... what?” Ro couldn’t form a coherent sentence. The idea of being between these two men—in the bed she was currently sitting on—had her heart thumping like a drunken tap-dancing leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day.
Zach squatted in front of her, the same way he had when she’d been plopped onto the bench of the picnic table a few hours ago. God, was that only a few hours ago? It seemed like it had been days ago, at least.
“Ro, baby, I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that. You don’t need to get all worked up about it, but it’s good that you know. Because I think I can safely say that we’re both attracted as all hell to you. And if you’d let us, we’d—” Ro reached out and put her hand over his mouth, cutting off his words.
“Please. Just ... not right now. I can’t even process … I just … I don’t know,” Ro stuttered, and then paused to take a deep breath and tried again, shaking her head. “I can’t deal with this right now. I’m not staying, and I’m not looking for a one-night stand, even if you throw out that old line about this being the last night on Earth. So just, I don’t know, let me go to bed, and we’ll forget we had this conversation. I mean, seriously, please forget everything I told you. It definitely wasn’t my finest moment.” Ro removed her hand from Zach’s mouth, and he didn’t speak. She looked to Graham, and he stayed silent as well. If he looked disappointed, that wasn’t Ro’s problem, or so she told herself. Both men studied her before they gave her a nod, standing and leaving the room without another word.