Her Second Billionaire (9 page)

Now he was certainly used to one night stands and having women sneak out – or being the one who sneaks out on a woman – but he had felt such a connection with her that this mystified him. And now, the great silence. What was that about? Why was she doing this?

He knew how to find her address. He knew where she worked. He even knew the floor; she had told him. But he didn’t want to be a stalker. He didn’t want to be
that
guy.

And he
wasn’t
that guy. It wasn’t his style; he never did that kind of thing to a woman.
This
one, though? Oh, he could actually feel himself drooling, imaging her body, conjuring her touch, the way she shifted her hips, the way that she leaned against him, the way that her hair hung in his face, the way that her lips seemed to –

Oh, man.

He and Mike were a matching pair of tented shorts now.

What in the hell was up with Mike? He was acting awfully squirrelly. Not that that was anything new, but Dylan was going to all this trouble to find them another person. Not that anybody could replace Jill, but he wanted that closeness, he wanted that sense of family that only three could give him and Mike. And now, now he felt unmoored. Lost.

So he typed again.
“Well, Laura, if you’re there, please, I’m trying to reach you. Give me a call, text me, something. I just wanted to talk. I really enjoyed the other night and let’s touch base”
. And with that, he shut down, he logged out, set aside his computer and went to join Mike on that run.

As he started to put on his running shoes he remembered,
Oh shit, I forgot to email my mom
. His mom’s seventieth birthday party was coming up and he needed to give his dad some answer about some detail. His computer was already off.
Oh, wait a minute, maybe I could just use Mike’s
, he thought.

So he went into Mike’s room and yes, the laptop was open. This would be easy. He clicked on the browser and up popped the same online dating website where he met Laura.
That’s funny
, he thought,
maybe that’s how Mike found his date last night. You would think he would have told me.

Blink, blink
. Dylan wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but a dull, creeping dread began to fill his veins. As he stared at the computer screen and read the chat windows, the account information, the all-too-familiar picture, and scanned over every detail on the screen, it slowly dawned on him that Mike was logged into his account and having a lovely conversation about his most recent date.

With Laura.

To be continued in
Her Two Billionaires
– the story of how Laura, Dylan and Mike become one.

A sample:

Bang bang bang
. Fireworks exploded above her, the dazzling pastels blooming before her eyes in a furious cascade of sparks. As the hot coals showered down like burning rain, Laura jumped when one touched
her.

Bang bang bang!
they exploded, the little pieces hitting her face, her legs, suddenly soft and caressing her like –

“Laura!”
Bang bang bang
. “If I hadn’t lost your key I would come in!”

Josie.
Wha?
Laura opened her eyes and fumbled for her phone. 7:22 a.m. She sat upright in horror.

“Hang on!” she shouted, stumbling to the door, unchaining and unlocking it. Josie stood there, petite and jaunty, peering around Laura.

“So is he still here?” she asked breathlessly. “Is that why you didn’t answer?”

“Is who still here?” Laura yawned and stood on tiptoe, her muscles desperate for oxygen, blood rushing into her extremities and nearly giving her a calf cramp as she slowly went down to flat feet, rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck.

“Whatever hot, eligible bachelor contacted you last night, because you are on a roll, Baby! One a day, right?” She punched Laura lightly in the shoulder and stormed past her, banging and shuffling things as Laura stared at the back of her front door.

For the briefest of seconds she ran a frantic mental check –
had
she gone out last night? – and then cursed herself. This was getting out of hand. No, last night she had stayed home and finished up some quarterly reports, watched a few episodes of Mad Men, and gone to bed early. Apparently, she’d needed the sleep. And, apparently, she had forgotten to set her alarm. Now she would be late for work, though she knew her boss wouldn’t mind. Last night she had clocked an extra three hours; flex time and a salaried position made it easier to go in a bit late this morning.

Josie didn’t have that luxury. As a geriatric nurse, she needed to be on shift on time, every time. At least she only worked three shifts a week, though. Soon her rotation would take her to midnight shifts, which Josie hated. So did Laura; it was hard to get together when her best friend kept a schedule better suited for vampires.

“I took a break from my busy fuckbuddy schedule,” Laura yawned, stretching again. Her belly felt cold as her shirt hiked up, and when she looked down her braless breasts hung lower, and off to the sides, like small,
smooth animals with the metabolism of a sloth. Josie had a chest like a boy’s, if a boy had tight little breasts you could fit in a headphone cover. Mostly, they envied each others’ figures, though Laura could never understand why Josie would want these boobs. At this rate, she’d need a wheelbarrow by the age of fifty. Or to marry a
good plastic surgeon.

A quick thought of Mike, then a more surprising flash of Dylan, hit her. She couldn’t get over Dylan – didn’t want to, really. Mike had called her last night. Asked her out again. This time to his cabin up on the mountain. Maybe they could make love without a million uninvited, biting guests.
That would be a step up
, Laura thought, as she absent-mindedly scratched her ass over her flannel pajamas. She needed some Arnica for the bites and kept forgetting to buy some.

“Quit scratching yourself and come have some coffee!” Josie called.

How did she knew she was scratching? The woman was part psychic. Or heard the
scrit scrit scrit
of fabric as she scratched. Or watched her reflection in the hallway mirror. Ah – that was it. She looked and
saw Josie’s cheesy, overstretched grin as she held up a mug and took a sip.

“Ahhhhh. Coffee tastes so much better at your house, Laura.”

“That’s because it’s free.”

Josie sputtered and laughed. “OK, you got me there.”

Laura poured a cup of coffee and sat at her little kitchen table, taking deep breaths. “What am I going to do, Josie? Mike asked me out on a date tonight.”

“What did you say?”

“Yes, of course. I really like him.” She took a sip. “More than I want to.”

“What does that mean?”

Laura said nothing, then started to explain, but thought the better of it. “Nevermind.”

“You are stuck on Dylan, aren’t you?” Josie’s tone was incredulous. “Did you ever figure out who that woman was?”

“Nope.”

“And has he tried to reach you?”

Laura blew air out her nose, laughing softly. “I have 34 messages from him on the dating site.”

“Oh, he’s playing it cool, isn’t he?” Josie frowned. “But I thought you blocked him?

“He created a new account.” Josie made a low whistling sound of disbelief.

Laura smiled wistfully. “Yeah. I just can’t go there, Josie. You know how much it hurt when I found out about Ryan…” She had dated Ryan for the better part of a year. They’d shopped for engagement rings. He’d introduced her to his boss, went on double dates, and then one day she got an anonymous message on Facebook. A request to friend.

Someone with Ryan’s last name.

His wife.

Funny how he forgot that detail.

She had a pretty simple morality: don’t date people who file taxes with other people as a married couple. Her rule was pretty simple. Too hard for Ryan, though.

And now she applied the same rule to Dylan: no dating people who were involved with other people.

“If I’m going to be part of a threesome, Josie, it won’t be as the invisible third.”

“Mmmmm, a man sandwich with Laura in the middle. And those two men…” Josie licked her lips with great exaggeration.

Laura’s hands reached out to shove Josie before she could think to stop herself. “Cut it out!” Her face burned, though, with the thought. Josie just cackled.

A threesome. Menage. She’d never done it. But she sure had thought about it. As her breath hitched with embarrassment and arousal she shifted in her seat, now painfully aware of the increased heat in her nether regions.

Regions that had seen more activity – and from more men – in two days than in two months.

“Laura and Mike and Dylan, sitting in a tree – o!” Josie joked, skittering away so Laura couldn’t punch her again. Shaking her head, Laura buried her face in her coffee to hide her expression from her friend, who was about a hair away from figuring out that Laura would welcome the menage.

More than she could even acknowledge to herself, much less admit to her friend. There were lines in friendship. This was one of them. She couldn’t take back the words if she blurted them out, and right now she was just too confused and tired to deal with the fallout of admitting what her heart really desired.

Besides, there was that pesky issue of Dylan’s girlfriend. Funny how that put a screeching halt to any sandwich fantasies.

At least she had Mike.

“You still have Mike, though,” Josie mused. “Poor Laura. Have to settle for a guy who looks like something out of Asgard. Does he have a tongue like a god, too?”

Laura threw the empty half-n-half container at Josie, who just chuckled as she stood and walked out the door, leaving Laura to get ready for a torturous day at work, the hours before seeing Mike stretching out like years.

As she dressed, though, she remembered her drive home from their last date. For some reason she still didn’t understand, she’d started crying as soon as they’d gotten in their cars. At first, she’d almost jumped out of the seat and run after him, just needing something – more. More words? No. More sex? Ah – no.

Just
more
.

By the time she’d arrived home she had been fine, so whatever triggered the tears seemed to have settled and found its place inside her. Could sex with someone she’d only met a couple of days ago unleash emotions
that
strong?

Was it deeper than that? Her earring got stuck as she tried to shove the post through the ancient hole, the back of the earlobe grown over. A few layers of skin closed up the back of the lobe and she worked to center the end of the post over the spot where the lump of scar tissue was thickest. Gritting her teeth, she forced the metal rod through, the hot sting of newly-pierced tissue evolving into a throb.

Her favorite pearl earring dangled nicely. Was it worth the pain?

Sure. For the sake of wearing something that complemented her perfectly.

Maybe Mike’s the same
, she thought. You had to date a lot of painful jerks before you found the one who complemented you perfectly.

Hot tears filled her mouth and eyes.

Aha
. Now she understood.

And yet Dylan – she closed her eyes and full drops poured out of her inner tear ducts and down her nostrils. An ache in her throat spread to her chest. Ignoring his messages had been agony. Sheer, unadulterated pain in the form of restraint.

She had held fast, though she had faltered only once. The (
gorgeous, incredible, irresistible
) idiot had gone and created a completely new online dating account to circumvent her blocking him! How stalkerish and weird and creepy and –

Flattering.

Charming.

Arousing.

She had almost – almost, achingly
almost nearly so close
– broken down and agreed to meet him for coffee, just to hear his side of the story – which she already knew. It was a cliché upon a cliché, right?