Her eyes darken as she tells me exactly what she told Marcus. “Never enough to say no.”
Then she opens her mouth and takes me deep onto her sinful tongue until I’m utterly lost.
CHAPTER SIX
A week later
Marcus
“It’s almost quitting time,” Josh points out the obvious, bobbing his head toward the setting sun through the picture window of our makeshift office in the abandoned property’s rundown lobby.
The owner restored the power and water for our site visit, and we hired a crew to give the place a thorough cleaning before setting multiple insect traps. Cynthia, Savannah’s assistant, rented us some furniture from a local warehouse, and the three of us set up a functional workspace, complete with whiteboards, a blessedly recent geographical survey, and an ever-growing list of ideas and to-do’s we need to sift through in the next two days. It’s a fucking mountain to accomplish, and there’s a lot riding on this deal.
But all I think about is Kate. About touching her. Stripping her. Being inside her. Overwhelming her until she comes for us, over and over and over.
Somehow we get work done. We have a routine. During the day, the three of us are dedicated to the project. We don’t touch. We don’t kiss. We don’t acknowledge in any way that we’re anything other than coworkers bound by a common purpose. But the hours claw by. Waiting for sunset has become the slowest, most agonizing foreplay I’ve ever endured.
By the time we wrap every evening, I’m desperate to touch Kate. We dash back to our suite, barely making it off the elevator before Josh and I lunge hungrily at her, get her naked, and sweep her into bed. Sometimes, we manage dinner. Most of the time, we don’t even notice we skipped it.
Kate hasn’t spent a single night alone. Our first morning on the island, I swiped her key card, went to her roach-infested accommodations, and brought her suitcase back to our suite. I set it on the luggage rack and, with my stare, dared her to balk. She didn’t.
Naturally, we didn’t relinquish her room for appearances’ sake. If the three of us turned in expense reports with only one hotel room, there would be raised brows all over Force Financial. Not Chad’s. He’s aware Josh and I have shared a woman. And as long as the work gets done, he doesn’t give a shit about our personal lives.
Actually, the fact he knew Taylor and didn’t like her should have been a warning…
As our days in Hawaii have flown by, something deeply problematic has begun eating at me. I’m not just obsessed with fucking Kate, but holding her, making her smile, sparring with her, laughing with her… I care about her happiness. No, it’s worse than that. I want tomakeher happy.
Even more troubling, subversive thoughts are creeping in. We only have a handful of days left on the island. I can hear the clock ticking in my head, counting down to the end of our fling. What happens once we return to Boston? I’m not ready for us to be over…and I’m terrified about what that means.
There’s a good chance I’m fucking going to get my heart broken.
“It’s nearly six. Feel like going out to eat?” I ask.
Josh doesn’t look excited by my suggestion. “If you want.”
No, but if we don’t, I’ll bury myself in Kate’s body again…and lose a little more of my sanity. “Yeah. What sounds good? I don’t know if I can do the Mexican place again.”
He scowls. “Kate loves it.”
“Then you two go. I’ll hang back here and”—I grapple for an excuse—“double check these financials to make sure they’re right. No doubt, Chad is itching to dissect these numbers.”
“I’m sure, but that’s a crappy excuse. You’re avoiding us. You’re running scared.” His jaw hardens. “I’m not going to let you.”
“What? You’re wrong,” I bluster.
“Bullshit. Admit it. You have feelings for Kate—deep ones. And you don’t want to.”
Sometimes I hate that Josh knows me so fucking well. “I don’t understand why this is happening. It can’t work.”
“Itcan,” he insists. “You’re overcomplicating this. I’m in love with her. I think she’s the one. I think you feel the same. Roll with it.”
“Josh, buddy… We’d be fucking stupid to go down this road again.” If we don’t bail now, we’re going to crash a second time. It will be way worse than the first. I don’t know if I’d survive.
“So you’re going to stay miserable and alone because you’re too afraid to tell her you’re in love with her? Once upon a time, you ran into a burning frat house to pull me out. Now you’re running from a woman?” He sends me a cutting glare. “You’re not a coward. Stop acting like one.”
I’d rather run into that burning building again. Blisters and minor burns heal a lot faster than a broken heart.
“We’ve been over this. Women don’t commit to two men. They don’t want their family and friends to know they’re being passed back and forth and double-fucked. They’re afraid to be labeled, judged, and gossiped about. Didn’t you learn the first time?”