Chapter Five

 

“You’re an angel, Jen. A saint to do this for me on your study day.”

Jen smiled up at the grateful Tasha, finishing her task with one final stroke. “Well, I’m caught up on all my assignments and you know I’ll do anything for your lemon tarts. Which is why you brought over a dozen. One for every toe,” she joked.

“Lord, please tell me I haven’t grown two extra toes. I haven’t seen my feet in days.”

Her roommate’s voice drifted from the kitchen to the living room. “A dozen? I’ll gain a hundred pounds.”

Jen smirked. “Only if you eat them all before I’m finished giving the Senator’s wife a pedicure.” She patted Tasha’s foot. “I was teasing. Ten toes and all done. In case you can’t find them later¸ they look gorgeous in fire engine red.”

“Funny.”

She’d laid out the kit her mother had given her last Christmas as soon as Tasha had called with the request. “Call it hormones, but if I have to deal with people wandering in and asking me questions about Stephen’s policies or the twin’s due date while the nail lady pretends she doesn’t notice my swollen ankles? I might cut someone.”

Jen had nothing but sympathy for her saucy, beautiful sister-in-law. She knew from the family grapevine that it wasn’t just reporters following her around. The Senator’s wife had accumulated a few secret admirers since she started to show.

Stephen was not pleased with the Baby Bump Brigade’s existence. He’d been fine until he knew they had their own website bursting with pictures of his wife running errands and coming and going from the doctor’s office. He’d been livid. And that was before he found out half of the Brigade were men who thought pregnant women were hot.

Tasha had always turned heads, but she was even more stunning now, if that was possible. Her mother said Tasha had “the glow”.

“It doesn’t happen to all pregnant women,” Ellen had assured Tasha weeks ago. “In fact, it’s rare—unless you’re married to a Finn. Then get used to it, because that glow is our gift for a lifetime of raising the handsome, troublemaking devils.”

Jen gathered up her tools and went to the bathroom to put them away and wash her hands. When she came back, Alicia was admiring her handiwork, tart in hand. Jen snatched it and took a bite.

“Hey!”

“Hey yourself,” she said around flaky lemon goodness. “I’m saving you from that ridiculous liquid fast you’ll go on as soon as Tasha leaves and you feel guilty for eating something with more calories than air.”

Alicia looked at her fingers and wiggled them, then pushed at the skin on her calves. “I should. I’m still suffering from Belize. They had food everywhere. If we weren’t having a five-course meal, we were being stuffed with fattening treats and appetizers. I’m bloated like a balloon.”

Tasha pushed herself up to a sitting position and glared at Jen’s sexy Latina roommate. “Alicia? I know you’re young and you don’t know any better, but you need to hush now. Have you seen this belly? I have two future six-footers baking on a high heat in here and I can’t unhook my bra or lace my sneakers without help. That’s bloated.”

Jen chuckled and both women turned to her with raised eyebrows.

“Oh, look, Little Finn is laughing,” Tasha sassed, but her green eyes were full of good humor. “Miss High Metabolism thinks we’re funny. Just because she can eat everything that isn’t nailed down and a single walk around the block gives her muscle definition, she thinks we’re funny.”

“She has no soul. I’ve heard rumors that gingers have no souls.”

Jen sent Alicia a warning look that made her giggle, then gave up and grinned at Tasha. “Don’t even start. I would Freaky Friday with you in a heartbeat. You know how long I’ve been jealous of your breasts.”

Alicia sighed, staring at them. “I am too.”

“Stop admiring me or I’ll cry,” Tasha warned. “It’s happening more and more lately and I’m only six months in. I’m exhausted, I’m weepy, I can hardly stand to be in the same room with myself. At this rate I’ll die of dehydration by month nine.” She made a face. “Let’s talk about something else. Alicia? How was the family wedding?”

Jen watched her friend push her thick waves of hair from her face with a scowl. “Lots of food. Lots of family handing Raoul babies and dropping hints the size of anvils. The groom’s mother kept trying to read my palm to tell me when he’d propose.”

Tasha laughed. “How did Raoul handle it? The babies and marriage attack?”

“Too well.”

Tasha and Jen shared a look. “What do you mean?” Jen asked.

“I mean I love him, but he’s so together he makes me nervous. We’re not even married and he’s already the perfect husband,” Alicia griped. “He cooks and cleans. If he took up knitting he couldn’t be more settled in. I don’t want to be an old married couple yet. What I would like is a little more…” She paused, shaking her head.

“Romance?” Tasha asked.

Alicia waved that away.

“Mr. Darcy?” Jen queried playfully, knowing Alicia’s obsession with Pride and Prejudice.

“Everyone wants that, but no. Hunger,” she finally said, reaching for another tart.

Oh. Break-the-bed sex, Jen remembered from their previous conversation. She  leaned toward Alicia consolingly. “What about the paddle I got you for your birthday?”

Her roommate lifted her shoulder. “He really likes the paddle. But we only have that because you got it for us, you know? He would never have thought of that on his own, and I’m usually the one to suggest we use it.” She made a face. “I don’t want it to sound like he’s not a great lover. He is very sensual. But I’m afraid I’ll scare him away if I tell him what I want.”

“You have to tell him.” Tasha had her experienced BDSM-switch face on. “He can’t know what’s going on in your head if you don’t calmly and clearly communicate what it is you want.”

“The problem is I’m not sure. Not specifically. But I want to experiment. To find out what we both like. To try new things. I don’t want us to be comfortable with each other by the time we get married, you know? I want to be irresistible to him.”

Jen couldn’t help but think about yesterday. Declan. There was nothing comfortable about that. She’d nearly screamed in frustration when he sent her away. She was going to go crazy waiting on these men to stop circling and make up their damn minds.

“You’re the one sitting on that mountain of diamonds, honey. If you want something different, you have all the control. Just let him know.”

Jen laughed at Tasha. “Is that how you’ve turned my brother into your love slave?” She looked at Alicia conspiratorially. “You should see him at the family dinners. The way he can’t stop touching her? I think her diamonds must be magical.”

Tasha’s smile was satisfied. “If it’s magic, we’re equally under that spell. I could tell you things about Stephen’s stamina that—”

“No!” Both Alicia and Jen said at the same time, making Tasha laugh.

Tasha’s phone buzzed and Jen’s beeped at the same time. She looked down at her texts and sighed. “Wow.”

“I know,” Tasha sighed. “Owen is going to drive Jeremy around the bend before we ever get to the wedding.”

Alicia covered a gasp with her hand. “He didn’t change the date again, did he?”

“No, thank goodness. But he does keep changing his mind about the details, and Jeremy keeps scrambling to change them. I swear he’s doing it on purpose.”

Jennifer shook her head. “He knows exactly what he’s doing. Owen was a brat when he was sixteen and he’s a brat now.”

She lifted her fist instinctively for Tasha’s bump of agreement. “You don’t have to tell me about your brother. I’m just glad Jeremy has so much patience. On the other hand, he was the one to propose. And that speech earned him a hell of a lot of brownie points.”

“Points he’s almost used up with his bridezilla impersonation.”

The three women chuckled before Tasha turned her attention to Jen. “Tell me your news, Little Finn.”

“My news?” Did her voice just go up an octave? Shit. Tasha was great at reading body language. “Other than classes and homework and some more classes, there’s nothing new with me.”

Such a liar. And she knows it.

“Mmmhmm. So I shouldn’t tell you I’m wondering whether to go to my husband with certain information Brady decided to share with me? I think he thought I already knew.”

“What?” The giant jerk. She knew he was worried about Trick hanging around her. He’d told her. He didn’t need to tell everyone else. He definitely didn’t need to tell Stephen. Not yet. She’d never get what she wanted once the Finn men got involved.

Alicia smiled curiously. “I’m missing something.”

Tasha tilted her head, sending her brown curls tumbling. “I think we all are, aren’t we, LF? I was under the impression you’d swung your pendulum back to being the good and dutiful Finn princess again, impervious to my bad influence.”

Please don’t say it.

“But now I know that it was all a distraction so you could play with blond, inked and wicked.”

“Who?” Alicia asked.

Shit.

“The tousled detective, Trick Dunham.”

“Her bodyguard?” Alicia sounded so surprised, and why shouldn’t she be? Jen hadn’t told anyone. Specifically Alicia. “That can’t be true. Ever since Jen moved in and her first semester started, she’s home in her own bed every night. Alone. I’m the one who sets the apartment alarms, so I know.”

Jen’s pale skin gave her away, turning bright red as the two women stared at her. “We might need better alarms, Alicia.”

Alicia made a high-pitched sound of surprise and Tasha laughed so hard she had to hold her rounded belly. “Oh boy. That woke them up. From what Stephen’s told me, a better alarm wouldn’t matter. Trick is… well, he’s tricky. And not someone I would have guessed was your type. I was so mad at your brother when he first told me about him watching you at the club, but he is cute, isn’t he? In a wrong side of town kind of way.”

“You’re sleeping with him and you didn’t tell me.” Alicia grabbed a lemon tart and took a large bite, obviously shocked and hurt. “Isn’t he forty or something?”

“He’s thirty-eight. And we’re not having sex. He just stops by.” And makes me come until I cry while you’re sleeping.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“I’m sorry.” Jen was a jerk. “It’s complicated. I was embarrassed. Not by him, but by the way I was behaving. And the longer it went on, the harder it got to let you know. Please don’t be mad.”

Alicia tugged on a curling strand of hair, considering her plea. “I understand. It’s like that time I borrowed your favorite jacket to go to a club. I set it down to dance and somewhere between the margarita competition and the guy juggling lit torches one sleeve caught on fire. Then I couldn’t take it home because you’d realize I’d borrowed and destroyed it, so I gave it to a homeless man. It looked really nice on him though.”

Jen’s eyes widened as she listened. “That didn’t happen,” she argued, confused. “That weird neighbor robbed us before he moved out. He stole some of your dresses and the necklace your grandmother gave you. That’s why Raoul got the alarm.”

Tasha was already laughing when Alicia sent Jen an innocent smile. “I was too embarrassed to tell you. Please don’t be mad.”

“You burned my favorite jacket?”

“You let a kinky old detective break into our apartment?”

“I’m having so much fun,” Tasha laughed. “We should get together more often. Forget political scandals and crime fighting. This is where all the action is.”

Jen couldn’t help but laugh. She didn’t really care about the jacket, as long as Alicia wasn’t mad at her. “I’m glad our dirty laundry amuses you.”

“Stephen would be livid,” Tasha said with a conspiratorial look.

“Which is why you won’t tell him.”

Tasha gave a nod of agreement. “Which is why I won’t tell him—as long as you clarify something for me. It’s been months since Stephen called Trick off. Has he been hanging around all that time?”

“Yes,” Alicia answered for her.

Jen sighed. Of course she wouldn’t keep that to herself.

“Why? Are you in trouble, Jen?”

“No.” At Tasha’s look, Jen shook her head. “I swear. Other than Trick, I’m currently trouble free.”

“And you’re telling me you haven’t slept together yet?”

“Everything but,” Jen confessed quietly, blushing.

“Why? Does he wear a promise ring? Is he a virgin?”

Jen snorted. “Not even a little bit.”

Tasha frowned. “I know he’s kinky because Brady mentioned something about testing a flogger but—Oh. Do you have a consensual arrangement? A regular play date?”

It would make everything so much easier if she just said yes. She glanced furtively at Alicia and shook her head. “Nothing that formal. Safe word, yes. Some toys. He likes to make me do things… But no floggers or handcuffs. He’s very hands on.”

“I’m getting jealous.” Alicia grabbed another tart and got to her feet. “I’m going to run to the store. Raoul left me a list so he could make something special for dinner tonight.”

Jen frowned and Alicia licked her fingers. “I can see you need to talk alone. Usually I’m very good at picking up on things, and Tasha is the resident sexpert.” She sent an apologetic expression to Natasha. “Is that an insulting thing to call a pregnant woman?”

Tasha grinned. “Not at all. I’m going to be a mother, not a nun.”

Alicia glanced back at Jen. “You’ve both inspired me to talk to Raoul. Maybe tonight he can pretend to sneak into my room and ravish me.”

“Little Finn, your roommate is a keeper,” Tasha declared. “I promise to bring lemon tarts next week just for you, plus a new toy for Raoul.”

“I’ll start running five miles a day in tart anticipation.”

When the door closed, Tasha grabbed Jen’s hand and pulled her up onto the couch beside her. “Tell me everything.”

This was Tasha. Tasha, who spent as much time at the club as Owen had. Tasha, who had regular three-ways specifically with bisexual men. Actually specifically with Jeremy until Owen started dating him, Jen mused.

Her family was getting complicated.

The point was, nothing was news to Tasha. Nothing shocked her. She’d probably experienced everything Jen had recently been through with Trick and Declan. It would definitely make Jen feel better about her own behavior.

Enemy camp, remember? Pregnant with your brother’s twins?

Jen had to risk it. She desperately needed someone to talk to. Someone who wouldn’t judge her. So she told Tasha everything.

Almost everything.

Tasha listened quietly to every new detail. She was obviously restraining herself until she knew Jen was finished. “That’s it. That’s my news.”

“Is that all?” Tasha asked quietly.

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Of course it’s enough.” Tasha raised her voice so suddenly Jen leaned back. “What the hell is he thinking? What are you thinking, young lady? And a professor, too? This is madness. Wait until your father gets home!”

Jen had crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders defensively until she heard the last sentence. She looked up in confusion and a warm hand pulled her close so her head could rest on Tasha’s round stomach. One of the babies was kicking. Tasha brushed her hair away from her face soothingly. “I know. That was horrible, wasn’t it? I’ll need to practice if I’m going to sound remotely believable when my kids grow up and have kinky secrets of their own.”

Relief relaxed her muscles, but she lightly whacked Tasha’s leg anyway. “You scared me. I think you’re ready.”

“I’m sorry. You looked so sure someone was going to yell at you, I thought I’d get it over with.”

Tasha always understood. Always. Even when she didn’t. “So, you don’t think its madness?”

“Oh, no, it’s absolutely madness. I mean, are you kidding? But how lucky does it feel to be you right now? Trick is all bad on the outside, with good gooey filling. Although making you wait is cruel and unusual, it’s also kind of romantic when you think about it. And this professor sounds enough like the opposite of Trick to be intriguing. Nerdy, repressed men can be some of the dirtiest lovers. And they’re a couple? Both bisexual?”

Jen nodded. “On and off, but when they’re on? Very intense.”

“So what you’re telling me is gorgeous, well-hung, bisexual Irish bookends want to make you the filling in their sandwich and pleasure you senseless? Oh yeah, your life is so hard.”

“I didn’t tell you they were well-hung.”

“Am I wrong?”

Jen smiled in answer. “Do you think I should do it?”

“Will you drop out of school and lose yourself in an orgiastic haze until you end up being arrested again?”

“No.”

“Will you let the dirty Professor Hot Lips give you a passing grade for your favors?”

Jen made a face. “Definitely not.”

“Are you still on the pill and taking precautions?”

“Yes, Natasha.”

“And are you still planning on using that beautiful heart of yours to help people in pain and save the world? As Finns do?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Then who am I to tell you what you can or can’t do with your body?”

Her body wasn’t the problem. “I’m not the best judge of a man’s character.”

“Prison changed you.” When Jen rolled her eyes, Tasha laughed. “But I’m being serious. You’re a different person now than you were with Scott. More confident. What we’ve been through in the last year or so? Everyone’s different, but I think you’ve grown the most—if you don’t count stomach girth. And you’ve done it while we were all too caught up in our own crazy romances and insecurities to notice.”

Jen smiled, loving that she could call this woman her sister. “You noticed.”

“Because I love you the most, but don’t tell your brothers.” She chewed on her lip for a moment. “And because I love you, I should tell you this won’t be as easy a sell as Owen and Jeremy, or Stephen and I, for that matter. As a one-time couple experience, sure. As a relationship…”

Jen forced a snort. “I’m not bringing them to the Finn Again. This is sex. It’s not serious. I mean it’s intense, but… Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Are you sure it’s not serious?” Tasha looked doubtful. “Trick and Stephen go way back.”

“I know. They hung out in the same—”

“They did more than hang out. They took turns saving each other’s lives.”

“The chips?”

“The what?”

“Trick said they each had chips to call in. That I was one of Stephen’s.”

“I know Stephen helped Trick get out of his house one night before his brother killed him. He was drunk and he’d beaten Trick pretty badly, and somehow your brother knocked out his, packed a bag and got Trick safely to a friend’s. They were young enough that, if he’d called the police, Trick would have been taken from his home and put in child services, which he didn’t want.”

Her heart ached for Trick. “That’s one hell of a chip.”

Tasha nodded. “But he’s earned his fair share, Jen. Stephen told me that a few years later Trick took the fall for him. Just him. A whole group of young hoodlums, all of them swearing loyalty to each other, disappeared on Stephen as soon as they heard sirens. Trick stayed. He hid him and got taken to jail for something he’d warned everyone not to do.”

Jen didn’t understand. “Stephen never committed an actual crime.”

“He came close, but Trick made sure no one knew how close. And he never asked for or accepted anything in return.”

“He really did that? Took the blame for my brother?”

Tasha nodded. “It was just stealing, not drugs or murder. But it went on his permanent record.”

And now her brother was a sitting senator and Trick found lost dogs and cheating wives. When he wasn’t breaking into her bedroom.

“He seems to make it a habit,” Tasha continued. “Helping people, I mean. Ken told me Trick recently helped relocate some people who were close to him. He made sure no one would ever find them, so they’d be safe. Ken said he’d owe him for life.”

“Does Brady know about that? Because he doesn’t like Trick at all.”

“Probably because he suspects his intentions for you. And that’s what I’m trying to tell you. He appears willing to put his good relations with a man who could destroy his life with one line of code, and a state senator who still owes him a favor, at risk to spend time with you. Not to mention incurring the ire of a Marine, his police chief brother and every other alpha male in your family. Do you think he did that—broke into your room and spent months seducing you—because he had some nights free? So he could get his old lover to have a one-time ménage?”

“Maybe?” She honestly hadn’t been thinking beyond tomorrow. Her office meeting with Declan. “I don’t know.”

“Well I do. Just like I know you aren’t as casual about this as you’re pretending to be. I can see it in your eyes. Of course, I could be wrong,” Tasha backtracked, obviously seeing that she was upset. “I am pregnant.”

Jen’s lips twitched. “You’re going to use that as an excuse for everything, aren’t you?”

“For a few more months, yes. Then I’ll have the new mother excuse. With Finn twins, that should last a few decades.”

Why would Trick put himself in such an uncomfortable situation? Tasha was right, it didn’t make any sense for a fling.

She couldn’t deny the combustible chemistry between them, though. All of them, which seemed unusual to her. Special. Trick drove her wild and made her want to laugh and hit him and give him a taste of his own medicine before begging him to touch her again. He was relentless and reckless and he called to something fun and playful inside her.

Declan was… Well, he was new. She almost felt guilty for how intensely she’d responded to him. How carnal their make-out session in the classroom had been.

He’d warned her about his lack of control, but when got to his knees and took her like that with his mouth... She shivered a little with the memory.

Jen didn’t want to stop what Trick had started. And now that she knew Declan wanted her, she had to know both of them. Together.

But you don’t know them, not even Trick, as well as you should.

It felt like she did. And what they’d awoken inside her wasn’t going anywhere until it was satisfied. That would take both of them finally giving in to their desires.

“Did I lose you? Earth to Jen?”

“Huh?” She blushed, sitting up and pushing her hair back. “Sorry.”

“You’re phone is ringing.”

She reached for it, then grabbed Tasha’s hand. “You won’t tell Stephen?”

“I’m insulted you’re asking. Is it because I’m pregnant?”

Smiling in relief, Jen reached for the phone. “Hello?”

“Are you alone?”

Declan. She got up and walked toward the kitchen. “My sister-in-law is visiting. We were having a girls’ day. But I can talk.”

She smiled when she heard him swear under his breath. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

“You’re not. What are you doing right now, Professor?”

“Right this minute?”

“Right this minute.”

“I’m sitting in my car across from your apartment, telling myself to leave.”

Her lips parted and she looked around madly for her flip-flops. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Oh. I had drinks with Trick yesterday after class. Wouldn’t let him go until he’d told me everything the two of you had done together. Now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Uh-huh. That’s interesting. Why don’t you come up so we can talk about it?” She blushed, gesturing to Tasha that “he” was outside and that she’d be back in ten minutes. Tasha clapped silently, gave her a thumbs up and stood, reaching for her purse to leave.

“On your girls’ day?”

“She was actually leaving as you called.” Jen mouthed Thank you! and blew Tasha a kiss, signaling that she’d call her later. “I’m alone.”

He made a pained sound. “I can’t come up to your apartment.”

“Why?”

“I think you know why.”

Jen leaned against the door. “Can’t control yourself without a classroom full of witnesses and a distracting documentary?”

“I nearly took Trick in the men’s bathroom at the bar. I would have if some idiot hadn’t threatened to call the police. Let’s say the last few days suggest a lack of willpower on my part.”

Jen closed her eyes and bit her lip, instantly picturing Declan and Trick together in a bathroom stall. “I wish I’d been there.”

He laughed roughly. “No you don’t. But I do. Which is why I can’t come up. Not until we all come to an arrangement together.”

An arrangement. All of them. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure I’m not leaving this car.”

Then she was going to the mountain. She opened the door and walked down the steps. “Did Trick tell you how we met?”

“Yes. And about your fiancé.”

She grimaced. “Oh.”

“I forced it out of him. I wanted to know if I had reason to be jealous.”

Her laugh was genuine as she snuck down the sidewalk, looking for his car. She thought it was silver. She should have paid more attention when her brothers talked about cars. “I can’t explain how not jealous you need to be.”

“What are you wearing? I’m talking about masochism in class soon and I’m doing research.”

She saw him leaned his head back on the driver’s seat, obviously on speakerphone, and smiled. “Never mind me, you’re wearing a t-shirt. I’ve never seen you in a t-shirt before, Professor Kelley. It’s weird, running into your teachers outside of school, isn’t it?”

He sat up straight and started looking around. He saw her as she came up to the passenger side door and knocked on the window. “Can I come in?”

“Hell,” she heard before he hung up the phone and the lock popped up.

When she got inside and closed the door, they were both quiet for a long, awkward minute. Then another. Jen was suddenly aware that she had no makeup on, her hair was back up in a ponytail and she was braless in a faded purple tank top and her inside shorts. She would tug them down, but there wasn’t enough fabric. She’d planned to look sophisticated and sexy for their meeting in his office. To wear something that would stop him from thinking of her as a younger student.

Even in a t-shirt and jeans, Declan looked put together. She shifted in the large, comfortable seat and glanced over at him. “I’m sorry. I don’t always think before I act.”

His hands were clenching and unclenching on his thighs as he studied her. “Do you usually dress before you leave the house?”

She half-laughed in disbelief. “I’m dressed. Not for dinner and a movie, but all the important bits are covered. I guess I should have thrown on a pair of jeans but I…” Didn’t want to give you the chance to drive away. “I’ll go grab something.”

He looked around at the windows and swore under his breath. Then he locked the car doors before she could reach for the handle. “That seat goes all the way back. The lever is on the side.”

Did he want her to lie down? His expression didn’t give anything away.

She leaned back. He was right. It went all the way back. “This is nice. Comfy. I bet it’s great for road trips.”

He shifted in his seat to face her, his tight lips curving slightly at that. “I tell you I don’t think I can be alone with you and control myself, and you decide to come down to join me in a confined space in your underwear.”

“Shorts.”

“Those are not shorts.”

“I’ve seen people run marathons in shorts exactly like this.”

“I don’t want to see you running, Miss Finn. I want to see you pushing them down to your knees.”

Jen gasped and her eyes flew to his. “What?”

“We’re going to talk about what comes next with us, and I want to see you. Touch you, while we do it. Trick told me you had a safe word and, after yesterday, I think it’s obvious we need one. What is it?”

“Teal.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Red wouldn’t work, he said. My hair… And no one ever says teal accidentally.”

Declan nodded, his gray eyes heated. “Push them down, Miss Finn.”

“You’re parked on the side of the road! What if someone sees?”

“You think I’d let that happen?” he demanded. “Down, now. To your knees.”

Oh God. “Everything?”

“Are you using your safe word?”

She wasn’t. She lifted her hips and pushed her thong and shorts swiftly to her knees, her heart pounding in her ears as she thought about getting caught. It was turning her on. “There.”

“I want that top off too,” he added, glancing in his mirrors.

“Declan, I have an apartment right upstairs. A bedroom with a door.”

His fingers came down with a hard tap between her legs and she cried out in surprise and excitement. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, Professor?”

She grasped the hem of her top and started to pull it off. Declan tugged the fabric from her grip and dragged it up her arms to her wrists. She watched in shocked silence as he used the tank top straps to knot it to the headrest, effectively trapping her with her arms above her head. “You’re a little kinkier than I thought, Professor Kelley.”

“You have no idea, Miss Finn. But you didn’t stop me.”

He took off his glasses and stared at her body, absently caressing her thigh with his hand. He was silent for so long she started to squirm, wondering if he liked what he saw. “We were going to talk?”

He slapped her pussy again. “Oh,” she moaned softly, wanting more. “I’m sorry, I just thought—” Slap. “You said you wanted to talk—” Slap. Slap. Slap. “Oh, please.”

“Please what?”

“More, Declan.”

He leaned over the console, practically on top of her so he could look into her eyes. “You like that?” He did it again. The sting a little sharper.

“Yes.”

“Is that what you want? Are you being a bad girl just to make me spank this pussy? Is that why you came outside like this?” Slap. Slap. “Is it because you know you need to be punished?”

She didn’t hesitate. “You’re the psychology professor. If you think that’s why I did it, you shouldn’t stop until I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Fuck.” He lowered his mouth to kiss her hungrily, biting at her lips while his cupped hand spanked her sex again and again until she was wet and writhing against him.

He lifted his mouth just far enough away to look into her eyes. Her skin was on fire but he wasn’t stopping. “I could make you come like this,” he muttered darkly, the sound of his hand landing on her flesh loud in the enclosed car. “But then it wouldn’t be a punishment.”

Was it a punishment now? She moaned when Declan stopped to slip his fingers through her soaked folds, one dipping inside her. “I should have come up to your apartment.”

He shifted in his seat, grimacing, and she saw the erection straining against his jeans. She licked her lips. Hungry and shivering with endorphins. “If you had, I could give back a little of what you gave me yesterday.”

Sometimes she couldn’t believe the things that came out of her mouth, but Trick and Declan brought it out in her. With them she was a siren. Shameless and sexy and irresistible. “Don’t you want me to?”

“More than you know.” Declan watched her as he slid his fingers in his mouth, tasting her arousal. He closed his eyes and made a sound of frustration so pained she could feel an answering ache inside her before he turned in his seat and buckled up.

Jen tried to sit up but her wrists were still bound. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you home,” he told her as he started the car.

“Your home? Wait. I’m still trapped in this shirt.” She struggled with the knot. “Declan, you can’t drive all the way to your house with me naked in the passenger seat.”

He wasn’t bending. “We’ll take back roads.”

“Declan we—”

“Do you want your ménage? The one Trick’s been promising?”

Jen worried her lip, looking out the window as the scenery started to fly by. What was the Finn motto again? All in or not at all? “Yes.”

Declan pushed a button in the center console and the phone started ringing.

“Hey, I wasn’t expect—”

“Trick?”

“Yes?” Trick said warily.

“I’m on the road to my house. I have Jennifer Finn naked and bound in my passenger seat. Are you busy right now?”

The line was silent for a solid minute, then, “I’m on my way.”

This was really happening. “I need to call Alicia. She’ll be worried when she gets back from the store and I’m not there.”

“Number?” Declan bit out. She gave it to him. “Tell her you’ll be gone all night.”

She did and luckily Alicia didn’t pepper her with questions, like why was she calling from a strange number when she had her phone and why she hadn’t locked the door when she left. Jennifer was glad. She didn’t want Alicia to mention their earlier conversation. Girls’ day was a sacred thing.

After they hung up, the car was heavy with anticipation and sexual tension. She felt vulnerable. She was hot and tingling from the spanking, her arms locked over her head, and the vent was blowing directly on her nipples. She wiggled around, trying to get comfortable.

Declan took one hand from the wheel and covered the mound of her sex. No slapping. No tickling. Just holding it in his hand. It was strangely soothing and arousing at the same time.

“Are we there yet?”

He smirked. “Don’t start or I’ll pull over and we’ll never make it home to Trick.”

Home to Trick. Did he realize how his voice deepened with pleasure when he said that? “Do you live near campus?”

“Not far.”

“Do you have any pets?”

“Miss Finn?”

“I know.” She sighed. “But I’m tied up in a car with no cover and no idea where I’m going, and I realized I don’t even know if you’re the kind of man who likes animals.”

His fingers tightened on her and she shivered. “Is this too fast, Jennifer? Tell me now. Do you want to go back? This doesn’t happen without your full consent and participation.”

“No,” she assured him. “I mean, yes, I am definitely in. I’m just feeling a little…exposed.”

“I see.” He caressed her tenderly, finding and lightly circling her clit without looking away from the road. “I love animals, but I don’t currently have a pet. I travel a lot between semesters.”

“We don’t have any either because Alicia’s allergic,” Jennifer volunteered, watching his hand. “But my brother Owen got Jeremy a puppy about a year ago. They named him Badass. Everyone loves him.”

“Jeremy?”

“Owen’s fiancé. The wedding was supposed to be this month but now it’s Christmas Eve? I can’t believe you don’t know this. It’s all over the news because my other brother Stephen is a senator.”

“That, I knew.” Declan sent her a strange look. “But I don’t usually pay too much attention to local news, I’m sorry. Are your parents okay with the marriage?”

“Are you kidding? My mother has been over the moon since they got together. Dad too. Jeremy is practically family.”

“Practically?”

“He’s been Owen’s best friend since high school. He stayed at our house a lot because…well, his parents didn’t react well when he came out.” Declan didn’t respond to that and she studied his handsome profile. She remembered what Trick had said about Declan’s family. “Was your mother like that when you told her?”

Declan smiled. “She acted like it was perfectly normal until the day she died. When I first worked up the nerve and told her I liked a girl and a guy in school, she praised me for being smart enough to keep my options open. She said it was a sign of an open mind and a creative spirit. She was a bit of a hippie, and she loved art.” Then his smile faded. “My father’s family doesn’t like change, as a rule, and their minds are as closed as they come. I can’t imagine them attending a wedding like that. Not even for a relative.”

Jen couldn’t imagine keeping her family away. “That’s sad.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I think my Uncle Sol is like that, even though two of his sons are openly gay. But then, he doesn’t seem to like anything and we rarely see him, so everyone ignores it.”

He started massaging her again. “Anyone else? I heard you played with a married couple. A man and woman.”

She frowned. “Trick really did tell you everything.” Did he mention the arrest?

“Of course he did. Did you enjoy it?”

The way he purred that question made her forget about everything but where they were going. She lifted her hips into his hand, needing more pressure. “I didn’t like her, particularly after she started talking trash and pressed charges for one little punch. So I’m not sure I can count that as a same-sex experience.”

He laughed. “Probably not.”

“There is this beautiful girl from Jamaica in two of my classes. I could imagine kissing her.”

“And now so can I.”

This was nice. Strange, but nice. Still, the way he was touching her made her desperate to get to his house and join Trick. She rocked against his hand, her need rising as she prayed they didn’t drive past a curious trucker. “Are we there yet?”

“You’re almost there just thinking about it, aren’t you, Miss Finn?”

“Kissing a girl?” she joked weakly.

“Trick and I kissing you.”

God, he was sexy. “Now I am.”

He pressed two fingers against her clit and started to rub in a circular motion.

“Yes, like that,” she groaned, arching her back.

She didn’t realize he’d stopped the car until he leaned over her again, the two fingers of his left hand filling her now as he sucked a nipple hard against the roof of his mouth.

“More,” she whimpered, tossing her head against the seat. “Declan!”

He groaned above her breast. “Come and I’ll give you more right now. Come on my fingers like the bad girl you are.”

Small explosions traveled through her sex and up her spine. She heard him growling as he felt her climax soak his hand and his teeth dug into her breast again.

The passenger door opened abruptly. “Did someone say more?”

“Trick,” Jen gasped breathlessly, heat flooding her face as one more fierce contraction burst through her.

He laughed and studied the scene with a wicked expression. “What did you do to him, sweet Jen?”

“You started it.”

Declan lifted his mouth and looked up at Trick with a feral smile. “Whoever’s to blame, I’ll be finishing you both tonight. As many times as I want. However I want.”

Jen saw Trick shiver. “Then we’d better get started.”