CHAPTER 7: Danielle

“So, this is what you do for fun?” Terry asked. He was sitting beside me on the roof of the Range Rover with his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. The night air was hot and thick. We were both sweating. The cold beer bottles in our hands were dripping with condensation.

“This is it,” I said with a satisfied sigh. I pointed toward the star-filled sky. “Look at that sky and tell me you’re not having fun.”

“It is beautiful,” he said, peering up. “You can’t see the stars like that from New York. Too many lights on the ground and too much crap in the air.”

I lay back with my hands behind my head. He did the same. “Tell me about your high school boyfriend,” he said. “The one you used to park here with.”

“Not much to tell,” I said.

“What was his name?”

“Davy Boone.”

“Davy Boone?”

I glanced sideways at him. “Yes. Why?”

He smiled. “If you had married him you would have been—”

“Danielle Boone, I know.” I leaned up to take a sip of beer. “Trust me, that fact did not go unnoticed by my three younger brothers, who called me that for years, even after Davy left town.”

“You have three brothers?” He whistled. “I can barely stand having one. Where are they?”

“They’re all working oil rigs in the Gulf,” I said. “They’re big boys now. Nineteen, twenty-one, and twenty-three. I still worry about them like they were little kids, though, because I helped raise them.”

“I sort of met your dad. Where’s your mom?”

“She left when I was young,” I said. “I reckon she stood Bellegrade as long as she could. Ran off with a travelling salesman when I was ten. I think she’s in Mobile now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He rolled to his side and propped himself up on one elbow. “So, what happened to Davy Boone?”

“He joined the navy right out of high school,” I said. “I know, Davy joined the Navy. He was supposed to come back for me, but I never heard from him again.”

“Never?”

I shook my head. “I got one letter while he was at basic training, then nothing. He didn’t even come home when his mama died. Far as I know, he’s dead too. Or just found another girl and moved on.”

He studied my face in the dark for a moment. “Do you still love him?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time. Then I married Randy and that didn’t last long. The pickings are pretty slim in Bellegrade.”

He took a swig of beer and licked his lips. “Maybe you should leave.”

I rolled my head to look at him. “And go where?”

“There’s a big world out there.” He glanced up at the sky. “You can see these same stars from anywhere, you know.”

“I guess,” I said. “Enough about me. Tell me about you. What’s it like being a billionaire?”

I could see his white teeth in the dark when he smiled.

“It doesn’t suck.”

“I’ll bet.” I rolled sideways to face him. “Tell me about your love life.”

“Now there’s a topic that won’t take long,” he said.

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t really have a love life. Tony and I travel a lot. Neither of us has ever really had a relationship.”

“But you’ve had a lot of women,” I said with a smirk.

He tried not to smile. “We’ve had our share.”

“Ever date the same woman?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Define date.”

My mouth hung open. “Uh, you define it.”

“Let’s just say my brother and I have similar tastes in women, and rather than compete with one another for a woman’s attention, we sometimes go in as a team.”

I gawked at him. “You mean y’all have sex with the same woman? At the same time?”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Sure. Sometimes.”

“And just how does that work?” I asked. I was already sweating from the humid night air. Listening to Terry talk had me heating up from the inside. I could feel a dampness between my legs that I knew wasn’t sweat. My nipples nudged against my bra. I felt a little hum in my clit.

He said, “Well, as you know, women come with many…”

“Holes?”

“I was gonna say parts,” he said with a grin, “but holes is a good word, too. We share, we take turns, we tag in and out; he gets one end and I get the other.”

“Oh my god,” I said, digging my top teeth into my bottom lip. “Y’all gangbang the same girl?”

“We prefer the French term ‘ménage à trois,’” he said in a very bad French accent. “But three-way or gangbang works just as well. We don’t care what you call it, so long as we get to participate.”

“Wow,” I said quietly. “I’ve never even imagined…I mean…just wow...”

Terry reached over and pushed a strand of sweaty hair from my forehead. He gazed into my eyes. He asked, “Is that something you’d like to try?”

My mouth moved for a minute but no words came out. I cleared my throat and tried to smile. “Uh, well, I don’t…I mean…I’ve never thought about it…”

“What if you tried it with one brother first?” he said, putting his hand on my cheek. His touch made me tingle. “And if that went well…then maybe you’d like to try it with two.”

He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. It was a soft, gentle kiss full of heat and promise. His tongue went around my lips and then slid inside my mouth. I moaned as my breath caught in my chest.

My body was suddenly on fire.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt a man’s touch.

My breath came in short bursts against his lips.

My breasts swelled. My nipples ached to be touched.

The crotch of my cotton panties was hot and wet.

“Can you swim?” I asked breathlessly, my lips still on his.

“Of course.”

“Then come with me.”