Time to Pretend
Awakenings 4
Time to Pretend
One glimpse of Daniel DiMarco sets Alaina Miles’s hormones into overdrive, but she cannot act on her feelings. Not only is he ten years younger than her, he’s a notorious womanizer. When the tension between them escalates into one night of passion, Alaina takes it in stride. It’s a dream come true, but it’s only one night.
When a leak in her roof forces her to hire a contractor, Evan Carrico, Daniel’s best friend and secret lover, is the man for the job. It doesn’t take long for Alaina to realize that her attraction to Evan is much more serious than it should be.
As she fal s in love with them and they fal for her, Alaina discovers their secret, but she wants to wait for them to build enough trust in their relationship to tell her themselves. When she stumbles upon them locked in a passionate embrace only hours after a tragic event, will the explosion destroy everything they’ve built?
Genre:
Contemporary, May-December, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length:
99,369 words
TIME TO PRETEND
Awakenings 4
Michele Zurlo
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
TIME TO PRETEND
Copyright © 2011 by Debora M. Ryan
E-book ISBN: 1-61034-298-4
First E-book Publication: March 2011
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of
Time to Pretend
by Michele Zurlo from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Michele Zurlo’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Zurlo’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
DEDICATION
Thanks to Nick S. for the football lessons. It almost makes up for the basketball thing.
Thanks to Mike D. for double-checking the biology.
Thanks to Melissa P. for the fresh perspective.
This is dedicated to the fans who asked for Daniel’s story.
TIME TO PRETEND
Awakenings 4
MICHELE ZURLO
Copyright © 2011
Prologue
The headlights of a car turning a nearby corner lit the truck’s cab, blinding Daniel with its brilliance before plunging it back into darkness. In so many ways, that was the story of his life. Flashes of light punctuated the nothingness of normalcy.
Oh sure, he laughed and had fun. He had a great family, wonderful friends, and some pretty spectacular-looking dates. Right now, the light for which he lived was threatening to spit out its batteries.
“I just can’t do this anymore, Dan. I can’t live like this.” If he let himself think about it, Daniel knew he understood exactly what Evan was saying. Embracing his stubbornness all the more, he concentrated his attention on the place where the armrest molded into the door frame dipped. Two balled up gum wrappers lay there mocking him. Daniel hadn’t put them there. Someone else had.
“Nothing has changed. I don’t get why you’re all of a sudden pissy about this.”
Next to him, Evan gripped the steering wheel, grinding his fingertips into the soft vinyl. The tips turned white, a translucent color that had no problem leaping from the shadows. “That’s my point.
Time to Pretend
9
Nothing has changed. Maybe when we first started fucking, it was for fun. It was something different.”
Daniel snorted. Neither of them had been with a woman before the age of seventeen. “We were sixteen. It wasn’t different. It was all we knew.”
Evan shook his head. Daniel didn’t need light to know the short bangs falling over Evan’s forehead were light brown, streaked from working outdoors all summer. His blue eyes evoked memories of the summer sky.
Daniel ground the heel of his hand into his eyeball, as if that slight pain would chase away the feelings he had for Evan boiling just below the surface.
“I can’t sit by while you stick your dick into every wet pussy that walks by. I want more, Dan. I want a relationship. If that’s not what you want, then fine. It wasn’t meant to be. I’m not saying I won’t be your friend. I’m saying that I want someone who wants to be with me.”
Expletives fell from Daniel’s lips. From experience, he knew Evan would wait until he ran out of curses. “It’s not enough for me, man. I like women, too. One in particular. I don’t want to stop fucking you, but I need more than what you can give me.” Evan sighed. “I’m willing to share you, but not with a hundred women. I like pussy, too. I’d miss it if I had to stop, but I think a loving, committed relationship is worth the trade-off.” Evan glanced toward Daniel, his gaze searching for something. “How about this?
You settle on one who is okay with what’s between us, and I won’t walk away.”
Had Evan just suggested a ménage? Daniel’s jaw fell open as he scrambled for words.
He reached out a tentative hand and rested it on Evan’s thigh. The tight muscle clenched and jumped, reacting to his touch in the way that sent blood to his growing erection. “Let me get this straight. You
10
Michele Zurlo
want me to choose a woman for us who will look the other way when we have sex?”
Evan shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to share a woman with you.
From the look on your face, I think I can guess who you have in mind.”
Daniel nodded, his gaze fixed on the middle distance as he considered the woman who invaded his fantasies. They had enjoyed one half of a really good date. Then it all went to hell, and Daniel had no idea what happened. Sometimes he caught her looking at him as if she wanted to throw him to the mat of his martial arts studio and have her way with him. Other times her neutral expression made him want to run in the other direction.
Though he rarely discussed his dates with Evan, he had talked repeatedly about this rare gem of a woman too often. Daniel knew that was why Evan chose this summer to push for something more.
He’d be damned if he would lose them both, not that he really had either of them.
“I think we should make sure she falls for us both before we spring the gay thing on her.” Evan tugged Danny’s hand closer and set it on his thigh.
Daniel rubbed his hand along Evan’s leg before moving it up to cup his erection. He didn’t have an issue with gay people, just with being called gay. His Catholic upbringing was too deeply embedded in his head. Somehow, if the words weren’t used, it wasn’t the same thing. He didn’t want to think about his hypocrisy or his creative logic. “I’ve never been attracted to another man, Evan. You know that.”
Evan unbuttoned his jeans and drew out his hard cock. He wrapped Daniel’s fist around it, pumping up and down. “That doesn’t make you not gay. Now suck my cock.” Shifting in the long seat, Daniel leaned down and took the thick head of Evan’s cock into his mouth. He loved the smell and the texture and the flavor of Evan.
Time to Pretend
11
“You do realize that the chances of getting her to agree to this are slim to none, don’t you?” Evan wrapped his fist around a handful of Daniel’s thick hair and thrust into his mouth. “This might be your last night with me.”
It would be a good night. From the first fumbling kiss in the locker room after football practice, it had always been a good night.
Daniel couldn’t count the number of times he’d dropped a date home early only to rush over to Evan’s to get laid.
Daniel would be extra-attentive tonight, just in case. The woman he had in mind wasn’t a sure thing. While he knew Evan would flip for her the same way he had, Daniel couldn’t guarantee his perfect lady would even consider giving him or Evan a chance.
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Michele Zurlo
Chapter 1
The woman dressed in clingy black cotton pants and a red sports bra was more than prepared to take on the man throwing a kick aimed squarely at her midsection. Whirling out of the way, she responded with a roundhouse kick of her own. The man skipped out of the way just in time. Her momentum carried through, putting her in a vulnerable position.
In the silence of the abandoned martial-arts studio, the smack of skin on skin and the thud of feet against the floor mats echoed from the high ceiling of the older building.
Alaina Miles clenched her fists, silently rooting for the woman to recover. She was average height for a woman, but she was tall when compared to Alaina, towering seven inches above Alaina’s five-foot-even stature. Her athletic build put Alaina’s curvy frame to shame. No matter what form of exercise she tried, nothing seemed to make a dent in those curves. Clearing her freezer of mint chocolate chip ice cream might help, but she was loath to forego comfort food.
Alaina’s mental encouragement was futile, though. In two moves, with chess master-like precision, the man had the woman pinned to the mat. The few times she watched them spar as a warm-up before the scheduled self-defense class, he usually won. Of course, the woman got him back later when she used him to demonstrate the best techniques to fend off an attacker.
The man was a sight to behold. Broad, strong shoulders were corded with long, lean muscle. His massive chest tapered to trim hips and an ass that demanded attention. Though she had never seen him shirtless or in shorts, Alaina was certain every inch of his body was as
Time to Pretend
13
well-defined as the biceps and forearms not covered by his blue cotton T-shirt. He was the tall-dark-and-handsome man of her fantasies. Literally. She was even tempted to name her newest vibrator after him.
Standing, he extended an olive-toned hand to the similarly complexioned woman and helped her to her feet with all the respect one athlete had for a colleague. “You left your right side open,” he said somewhat unnecessarily.
“Yeah, I figured that out when you got a hit in.” The woman headed to the bench next to Alaina and grabbed her water bottle. “I can’t think of how to counter that without committing to the kick.”
“Bring your arm down.” He demonstrated the move she should have made.
Alaina watched with casual interest. Later, in the privacy of her own home, with all the shades drawn, she would practice the moves the pair demonstrated.
The woman sat down heavily on the bench next to Alaina.
Thinking of her as “the woman” and thinking of him as “the man” helped distance herself from both of them. Though they were both highly charismatic, friendly people, Alaina knew distance was necessary. She’d made the mistake once of thinking she could have a relationship with either one of them that was more than business. She wouldn’t be humiliated that way again.