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Chapter Three

Ruby

S till standing on the beach between the two men I never fully exorcised from my system, my phone buzzes in the pocket of my dress.

At first, I think it’s my body still trembling from the emotional impact of those kisses, because goodness, I can still feel their tongues wrestling with mine, those big quarterback hands of Dean’s fondling my bottom, a place I’ve never allowed anyone to touch me.

Cameron’s erection stabbing me in the tummy. And all of it in front of their wives .

“I think your phone is going off, angel,” Cameron says, his breath on the crown of my head, his fingers playing with the hem of my dress.

“Oh.” Swallowing hard, I try and reach into my pocket, missing twice before finally finding it.

Could anyone blame me, though, when these two gorgeous men have made me the center of their sandwich?

“Um. It’s Molly. She says they’ve decided I’m going on a drive with Dean first. To the Griffith Observatory to catch the view.

Then tonight, I’ll have a swim date with Cameron. ”

As expected, the grass is always greener to these men.

They grumble at each other, frowning, as if trying to decide who is being given the better opportunity.

While they’re distracted, I take the chance to remind myself of the ultimate goal.

Dean and Cameron need to walk away from this three-day experiment as friends.

Or their wives are not going to pay me. Which would be bad.

Because if they don’t pay me, I will have to close the doors on Sip and Flip.

All of my carefully laid out dreams will be dashed and I’ll have to start from scratch.

In other words, I need to do whatever is in my power to give these men the satisfaction I denied them six years ago, thus giving them no reason to resent one another.

It must be said, however, that there are far greater hardships than being handed the chance to explore my physical wants with two big, powerful men.

Dean with his 6’4” athletic build, impeccably honed at the gym. His light tawny eyes and expensively styled light brown hair. A jaw that could break a cinderblock.

Cameron is more like a sleek animal, all unruly black hair and soulful green eyes, his body cut and sinewy from metalworking his sculptures. A modern blacksmith.

Both are looking at me like they’re one second away from snapping. Taking me down onto the sand and ripping my dress off with their teeth.

“Don’t be like this, men,” I say, kissing Dean on the chin, before turning to Cameron and kissing him in the exact same spot. “We only have three days. Let’s enjoy ourselves.”

“I’d enjoy it a lot more if he wasn’t here,” Cameron blusters.

“Likewise, buddy,” Dean returns with a phony smile. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get her out of here for a while. Away from you. Before you try anything weird with her and I have to kill you with my bare hands.”

“Shut the fuck up, Dean,” Cameron growls, reaching over my shoulder to poke his former friend in the shoulder. “Like I said, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, either.

But whatever it is, let’s think about putting it behind us.

” I rub circles onto both of their chests, giving them my broadest smile in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Don’t you remember all those Shakespearean grudges we studied together?

I’ll remind you, they all ended in tragedy. ”

“I remember every single thing you taught me, baby,” Dean says, reaching beneath my dress to tease my panty line. “And every minute I got to spend with you.”

“Me too,” Cameron says through his teeth, tugging me back in his direction. “But obviously one of us paid better attention. I’m the only one who got an A in Shakespeare.”

Dean flips him off.

“You both did amazing,” I protest, but it’s clear I need to get them away from each other, before there’s a fight and nothing gets accomplished. “Um. Dean, why don’t we go for that drive now? I’ve never been to the Observatory, and I’ve always wanted to go.”

“Good idea,” Dean says.

Cameron snags my hand before I can walk away, running his incredible lips over my knuckles and sending a sensual shiver down my spine. “I’ll look forward to our swim, angel.”

“I’ll look forward to it, too.”

It’s surreal to be walking hand in hand with Dean Carmichael, a man I never expected to see again.

My pulse is a little wonky as we weave through the throngs of tourists at the Griffith Observatory, though.

It feels like we’re doing something wrong.

Really wrong. Even though I know it’s not the case, there’s a sense we’re going to get caught.

The majestic gray and white dome looms to our left, the green valley spread out in front of us, the jagged skyline of Los Angeles up ahead.

Dean draws me toward the perimeter of the platform, positioning me in between him and the chest-high stone wall, wrapping his arms around my shoulders from behind.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Dean says, nuzzling my hair. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Me either,” I confess, turning my face up to the sunshine and getting a kiss on my nose, instead, making me giggle. “I’m grateful we are, though. The way the three of us left things was...unresolved.”

He growls into a kiss of my neck. “I only want to think about the two of us right now.”

I send him a playful frown.

“There’s something I’ve been dying to ask you,” Dean says, his right hand moving to massage the nape of my neck. “You’re smart. Beautiful. Sexy doesn’t even begin to cover it. How the hell are you still single, Ruby?”

I tilt my head left, releasing a silent moan when his thumb drags up a particularly tight tendon, further loosening my stress, along with the sunshine. “I like it that way.”

“You don’t want a relationship?”

“No.” I turn to face Dean, excitement racing up and down my limbs at the familiar way he presses into me, chest to thigh, like we’re a couple.

And I know we have permission to be like this together, but oh boy, it’s almost criminal how my soft body molds to this married man’s muscle.

It’s a taste of something that could easily become an addiction, if we’re not careful.

“My parents had a really ugly divorce when I was nine. I went to live with my father and his new wife, only for them to go through the same thing a few years later. I’ve seen people who claim to love each other make one another miserable.

I don’t want to open myself up to that. I like my freedom.

I like the quiet. Not having to be accountable to anyone. It just…works for me.”

What I don’t add is that I haven’t found a single person who might make me want to change my decision. No one has ever quite lived up to…well, them.

Cameron and Dean.

Dean strokes a hand up my throat, his touch trailing higher until he can rub the pad of his thumb side to side on my bottom lip.

“That makes a lot of sense after what you’ve been through.

” He shakes his head. “But I still think someone is going to try and snatch you up one day soon. And I’m sure I’ll hate his fucking guts. ”

I send him up a smirk. “Well, if I happen to find a man who leaves me alone, doesn’t make me cook and stays quiet while I read, I’ll make sure not to invite you to the wedding.”

“Thank you,” he chuckles. “Yes, please spare me.”

“You had a big, beautiful wedding, didn’t you?”

Dean nods. “A double wedding. Obviously,” he says dryly. “I agreed to it, as long as they kept that idiot on the other side of the banquet hall.”

“Dean,” I admonish, slapping his chest.

“Sorry.” His jaw pops once, then he turns me back around to face the green valley, his strong body crowding me up against the stone wall, my breath catching when I feel his hard ridge against my bottom. “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to focus on you.”

“I like having your focus on me,” I murmur, pushing up on my toes to lock my buttocks more securely to his lap. “Do you like the way I feel?”

His groan sends a warm shiver down my spine. “You have no idea, baby.”

“Just remember there are people around.”

“I’m incredibly aware of that.” His laughter is pained.

“I think maybe this is my wife’s idea of a cruel joke.

Sending me to a place where I can’t touch you how I want.

” I can sense him checking our surroundings, his hips tilting needfully.

“Most people are on the other side of the observation deck.” His hand slips down between my lower body and the wall…

and I gasp when he cups my sex through the pleats of my skirt.

“Let me just get a little feel, Ruby. I never got to feel you here. Goddamn, I’ve thought of putting my cock here so many times. ”

His slowly circling fingertips feel incredible, even through the material of my skirt and the white silk of my panties. “I thought about it, too,” I whisper, blushing.

“Did you?”

“Mhmm. I felt so guilty about it.”

“You were too much of a good girl, weren’t you?” His fingers move beneath my dress, teasing the silk barrier of my panties with the tip of his middle finger. Sliding it up and down along my damn seam. “My Ruby wasn’t a rule breaker.”

“I’m still not,” I say, grinding gently on his lap. “I have permission.”

His harsh breath is stirring my hair. “Did you get excited? When she asked you to service her husband for three days?”

I bite my lip to trap a moan. “I might have gotten a tiny bit wet.”

He bites off a curse, the entirety of his hand cupping my sex now, molding it in his palm like I’m his plaything.

In a sense, that’s exactly what I am. If I’m being honest with myself, that’s part of what’s turning me on the most. “Not such a good girl after all, huh?” Dean says, delving his fingers inside my panties, groaning in my ear when he feels how the contact with his body has affected me, along with the illicit conversation.

“Oh God, it’s even sweeter than I imagined it would be.

” His index finger rides through the damp valley, starting at my entrance, then slowly, slowly dragging to my clit.

“Damn. Did you get this pussy waxed for me, Ruby?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh, fuck. Fuck, that’s so hot.” His middle and ring finger begin a soft, targeted assault of my clit, working it clockwise. Luxurious strokes that make my bones tremble, then liquify. “I’m crazy to ask you this, but I’ll regret it if I don’t…”

My inner thighs are already beginning to feel like jelly, a knob turning tighter and tighter below my belly button.

I don’t touch myself frequently at all. No one else has ever touched me between my legs, either.

It’s like I’ve been waiting for this treatment for six years, my body secretly crying out for something it couldn’t have. “Ask m-me.”

“Would you…call me Daddy for the next three days?”

“ Yes. ”

The word bursts out of me, as though that slick flesh he’s touching so reverently already knew the question and the answer.

Has known it ever since I tutored him in the library while he devoured me with his eyes, his frame a full foot taller than mine.

Making me feel so dainty. “That feels so good, Daddy.”

“Oh Jesus Christ.” His erection throbs against me. “I can’t believe this is real.”

“It’s real. Rub me faster,” I gasp. “P-please.”

“I’ve got you, baby,” he rasps, dragging his tongue up the side of my neck and latching onto my ear. “Drip that young come right into my hand. Right where it belongs.”

I’m struck by a bolt of pleasure, my backside jerking back into his lap, my thighs shaking around his hand. The tension inside of me tightens, then snaps, the muscles between my legs working, working, pulsing, moisture seeping out and along his fingers.

The release is so intense, I can barely stand afterward. Thankfully, I have Dean’s big body holding me up, his knuckles moving to strum my tummy after fixing my panties back into place and shielding them with the bottom of my dress.

“I’m not ready for this to be over,” he says gruffly, swaying me. “I’ve got the Maserati in the parking lot. Let’s put the top down and have some fun with the winding roads in these hills. You can tell Cameron we spent an extra-long time admiring the view.”

I turn in Dean’s arms, letting him boost me up with two hands on my bottom, my legs wrapping around his hips as he carries me to the parking lot, past a dozen outraged faces. “Sure, Daddy,” I whisper in his ear. “It’ll be our secret.”