“Yes, a friend of mine from high school helps to run the practices. A lot of hard work goes into creating a production.”
“You sound like you know a bit about that?” Ace asked, as Bull stood up and moved his chair around. Now she was in the center, sitting on Ice’s lap with Bull in front of her on the right and Ace on the left. Bull’s calf was pressing gently against her lower calf and Ace’s was pressing against her ankle. Both men could reach right down under the table and caress her skin if they wanted to. Did she want them to? The thought made her look around at the bar and pull her libido back by the reigns and take a breath.
“Did you do theatre in high school?” Ace asked, and she remembered that he had said something before that, but she was absorbed in their presence and their effect on her.
“Oh, you said I sounded like I knew about the hard work. I’m sorry, I lost my train of thought.”
She felt all three men touch her. Bull leaned forward and ran his palm along her calf, Ace covered her ankle with his hand, and Ice caressed his palm back and forth against her thigh.
“Join the club, baby. I can’t keep a straight thought in my head while you’re this close to me,” Ace admitted.
“Smelling this good,” Ice whispered against her ear.
“Looking this good,” Bull added.
She gulped and then pulled her lower lip between her teeth.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she whispered, her voice cracking on the last syllable.
She felt Ice kiss her shoulder, over the bruising. “Do what to you? Make you feel what we’re feeling and not fight it?”
She turned at him. “This is crazy, Ice. Absolutely nuts.”
Ace squeezed her ankle, and she looked at him, seeing the same identical expression as Ice on his brother’s face. Both men shared the same brilliant blue eyes, where Bull’s were brown. Their experience and their maturity now turned her on where earlier today the thought scared her.
“It’s crazy how attracted we are to you and you to us. It’s also rare, Serefina,” Ice told her.
“I don’t even know the three of you.”
“That’s exactly why you need to get to know us,” Ace added.
“Why are you afraid to get involved with us and see where this leads?” Bull asked her.
She took a deep breath and released it.
“It’s a long story, and I just don’t think I’m ready to explore any relationships, never mind one I’ve never even thought about trying.”
“So it’s the sharing thing that bothers you?” Ice asked, kissing her neck, making her body hum with desire. She mumbled a yes.
“Honey, no one ever just jumps into a relationship like this. We’ve never shared a woman before either. But it’s something we’ve thought about. Something we wanted but never thought could be a possibility,” Ace said.
“Especially after our brother Marco died,” Bull added. She felt her chest tighten. She knew about that because of her mom.
“It’s never easy to lose someone you love,” she whispered. The roar of laughter brought them out of their conversation until she felt Ice tap her thigh.
“Let’s go for a walk outside where it’s less noisy.”
She looked around them.
“Don’t worry. We’ll let you two leave first and then we’ll leave a few minutes after,” Ace told her as if he read her mind and concerns at being seen leaving with three men she just met.
When she stood up, she felt her legs wobble but also felt the loss of sitting on Ice’s sexy thigh.
He took her hand but then eased behind her as he guided her through the crowd and out of the bar. It didn’t seem like anyone noticed, and once they were outside, the warm air did nothing to calm her trembling body.
* * * *
Ice was trying to resist the urge to pull Serefina into his arms and kiss her. When she walked into the Station with her friends, they gained everyone’s attention. Bull nearly headed straight for her, but Ace had had enough control to calm him down and then explain what they needed to do. Confronting Serefina, coming off all caveman like or immature was not going to go over well. They needed to take their time. They knew that she was going to be their woman. They staked a claim. They spread the word. Hell, they even spoke with Eddie, Tyler, and Lance. Now that had been just as stressful as waiting to see if Serefina showed up tonight.
They walked down the pathway, passing some people hanging out by the entrance and others enjoying a stroll along the pier by the bay.
Serefina looked over her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, darling, they’ll be coming along soon enough.”
He held her around the waist and headed toward the park that overlooked the channel. There were numerous benches and places to sit out there, but they had parked the truck and left a full cooler in the back.
“We can sit down on the back of the truck. We packed a blanket and some drinks in the cooler.” He hit unlock and pulled down the tailgate. He reached over and unfolded the thick blanket and covered the back bed of his truck. She looked out toward the water, holding herself as he absorbed her long brown hair hanging past her shoulder blades.
“Serefina?” He whispered her name as she turned toward him, looking lovelier than anyone he had ever set eyes on.
“I’ll lift you up so you can sit on the blanket.”
She placed her hands over his forearms, but as he lifted her, feeling her feminine, light body in his arms, he couldn’t resist.
He kissed her softly, and his heart soared as the empty spot inside felt as if it flooded full.
Serefina kissed him back, and then ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders, but the move must have caused her shoulder to ache as she stopped and pulled back.
“God, I wanted to do that since the morning I met you on the beach.”
Someone cleared his throat and they both turned to see Ace and Bull.
Serefina lowered her eyes as Ice lifted her the rest of the way and placed her onto the blanket over the tailgate.
Bull and Ace moved closer as Serefina crossed her legs and looked out toward the water. She looked sad, and he wondered why. Bull took a seat next to her on her left and Ice took the seat on her right. Ace stood in front of her.
* * * *
Ace and Bull talked about the anticipation they were feeling leaving the bar and getting over here to spend time with Serefina. But it was the sight of his brother kissing her that lifted his heart and made him want to yell out a hallelujah.
But now that he was closer, he could see the tears in Serefina’s eyes.
He placed his hand over her crossed tanned thighs and his palm against her cheek. Staring nearly eye to eye now that she was sitting on the back of the truck, he absorbed the sight of her beauty.
“You look upset. Does it have something to do with us?” he asked.
She took a deep breath and released it, as Ice covered her one hand and Bull covered the other one. All three of them were touching her and it aroused Ace more than he ever imagined it could.
“It does and it doesn’t, Ace.”
“Maybe you can explain it to us so we understand what you’re feeling?” Bull suggested.
“How can I when I feel so much right now. I’m confused, I’m attracted to the three of you and I feel guilty for feeling this way.”
“Guilty?” Ice asked.
Ace caressed her cheek and then her chin, tilting her face up toward him.
“Does this have something to do with the fire you were in back in North Carolina?”
* * * *
Serefina panicked. She didn’t totally understand why, but she did, and tried to get down off the truck.
Ace held her in place by her hips. She froze, overcome with emotions running through her body and the feel of his large, hard hands against her hip bones.
He pressed closer, and she moved her legs to the right. They were still crossed, and now any possibility of getting down and escaping from his questions were gone.
“Don’t push us away. I can see the sadness in your eyes. I feel you struggling. Talk to us. Why can’t you give in to the attraction we feel?”
She took a deep breath and forced the tears to stay away, and the fact that she could do that validated her feelings of betrayal to Matt. She was even done crying over missing him.
“It hurts too much,” she whispered.
Bull placed his hand on one shoulder, Ice on the other, and Ace continued to soothe her fears. “Why does it hurt? What are you feeling?”
“Guilt, betrayal, selfishness, desire, you name it, and I feel it right now.”
They were silent and she wasn’t sure what would happen next. She wanted to leave, to run home, yet another part of her felt disappointed and at a loss for not at least trying to open up her heart to them.
“Tell me about him,” Ace whispered.
Serefina widened her eyes, shocked that he knew it had to do with a guy. But Matt wasn’t just any guy. He was her first lover, her future, or so she’d thought.
“Oh God, Ace, how can you ask me about him? How can you, when you like me and you want to get to know me in that way?”
“Because by knowing about him, it will help us to learn about you. It’s what we wanted to do from the start. We want to know who you are. What makes you so special and different than any other woman we have ever met that you can bind together three brothers.”
She was shocked by his words, his powerful admittance, yet she shouldn’t be. She felt the same instant, deep desire for the three of them, and it seemed like there was no fighting it anymore.