“One of these days she’d going to have a wakeup call,” Grace said. “I think inside she’s just a little girl who’s afraid to grow up.”
Lydia scoffed. “Well, I’d like to personally kick her inner child’s ass.”
Rachel and the girls chuckled and then she leveled her dark blue eyes on Charity and raised a brow. “Back to what we were talking about. Come on, Charity. You’re telling me that you wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to be surrounded by all that intensely sexual, long-haired masculinity? Their strong, rough hands stroking you until you can’t breathe anymore? You don’t want all three of their mouths all over you, licking, kissing, and sucking. You don’t want to know what it feels like to be wrapped up in them and touched everywhere all at once?”
Jayne said, “Way to go, writer-girl. Get us all hot and worked up and then send us home horny to our husbands.” She made a disgruntled sound as she looked into her margarita glass and realized it was empty.
The girls all giggled but Rachel still waited expectantly for an answer.
Charity took a deep breath, knowing she was on the precipice of voicing something that couldn’t be. “It doesn’t matter what I want. There are fundamental truths about our men that we don’t ask them to change.”
After sipping from her drink, Rachel said, “Explain.”
Charity leveled her gaze on her friend. “Would Eli share you?”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “Never.”
Charity gave a succinct nod. “Justin doesn’t share and I wouldn’t ever force him to. He’s been too good to me over the years to place him in a position where he’d feel obligated.”
“Obligated? Odd word choice.”
Charity looked at her friends. She knew they could be trusted. “Justin offered to fulfill my ultimate fantasy. If I tell him, he’d feel obligated to give it to me. Do you see? I can’t hurt him like that.”
Grace sat back and took another sip of her ginger ale but Charity saw the smirk she was trying to hide. “Don’t, sis,” she said firmly.
Grace’s blue eyes rounded with nearly convincing innocence. “What?” she asked softly.
“I know that look.”
Jayne chuckled. “I do, too. I remember it from a couple of summers ago when you two invited me to that Fourth of July parade.” She raised her empty glass in a toast to Charity. “Your karma has done come home to roost.”
Charity shushed her cousin and said, “That was Grace’s doing. And you got the man of your dreams as I recall.”
Jayne hugged her glass to her cleavage and giggled dreamily. “Did I ever. So…you should just give in. Let Grace work her mojo. And Rachel is right about Val and Ransome. Their eyes are talking dirty to you from across the room even as we speak, cuz.”
“No,” Charity said with a shake of her head, resisting the urge to look over at Val and Ransome. “This is my marriage we’re talking about. I may be a total freak in many aspects of my life but I take our wedding vows seriously.”
Grace frowned and placed her hand over Charity’s on the table. “No one is talking about breaking any vows, sis. Nothing has to be broken in order for you to be truly happy and you know that.”
“What would you have me do, sis?”
Grace grinned like the Cheshire cat. “I’d have you do what you told me to do. Seize the day, baby!”
“Oh, bite me!”
* * * *
The table across the club erupted in laughter and Ransome flicked a glance at the mirror. Charity’s arms were crossed over her chest and there was a high flush in her cheeks, making them glow. She always got that way when she was put on the spot and it stirred his protective side, or at least that was what he told himself as he stood from his chair at the bar.
“You heading out?” Val asked as he nodded at the bartender when he offered a refill on his beer.
“Not yet. I’m asking Charity to dance.”
Val raised an eyebrow. “You’re playing with fire.”
Ransome pushed the chair in. “It’s just a dance. She won’t say no.”
“That’s not what worries me. It’s the direction your thoughts are taking that concerns me.”
“I’m just dancing with her. Chill.”
As he approached, the ladies at Charity’s table turned their attention to him. Jayne Carter got wide-eyed and then looked away while Rachel arched an eyebrow and elbowed Charity to get her attention.
Rachel said, “Hey, handsome. I heard you and Val are back in town permanently. I’m glad to hear it and I know Eli will be, too.”