Her Billionaires(39)

Josie nodded. “So, Laura,” she laughed. “Was it worth it?”

Laura reached down her V-neck into her bra and found the offending bite, scratching it furiously, knowing full well that at this rate, she was going to break the skin but at least that would give her some sweet relief. “Yeah. It was worth it, but next time I’ll wear a bug spray instead of perfume.”



Mike sat in bed staring up at the ceiling, counting the little holes in the tiles yet again, for what felt like the thousandth time. Actually, it probably was the thousandth time. He’d done it over and over and over ever since Jill died a year and a half ago. Except this time, he was doing it to keep his mind occupied, not to keep his mind distracted.

He was doing it because it was something habitual, something rote, something that he could just slip into so that he didn’t have to deal with the actually messy emotional aftermath of his date with Laura. It had gone so much better than he ever could have expected. He never intended to sleep with her. And he certainly never intended to make love to her at the top of that mountain on that blanket.

Yet he had and he was glad.

The last time he and Jill had made love had been right there. While he wanted to reclaim the space with someone new, he hadn’t planned to do it in quite that manner. Laura moved something inside of him. Her soft curves, her joyful laugh, the way that she focused and her face melted into passion as she came. It all was so overwhelming and too intense.

Mike needed to talk to someone about Laura. How intoxicating. How calm. How lush. How sweet. How—him. It was as if someone had hand-sculpted the perfect woman for him and forgotten to tell him that this was what he really wanted. No, she wasn’t Jill. And no one ever would be Jill. That was OK, because it had to be OK. He didn’t have a choice.

Always assuming he would never, ever fall in love again, Mike hadn’t considered the idea that he might find a different love—one that was no more, nor less, than what he and Dylan had with Jill. Could life with Laura be as good? Better? Different? The sex had been astounding, though he could do without the damn mosquito bites. Next time he would take her to his cabin.

Next time. He didn’t care that he was getting ahead of himself. But then...Dylan probably thought he had a next time, and Laura had shut him out. What was that about? He knew Dylan was tormented by her silence, but he couldn’t exactly ask her about it, now, could he? Not without blowing his cover. Cover? What the hell, Mike? he asked himself. This wasn’t some CIA movie or FBI plot. He wasn’t the center of a sting operation or an undercover drug bust.

He was, however, being deceitful, and that felt very, very wrong. Laura had no idea that he and Dylan were a— what? What were they, exactly? Explaining their relationship hadn’t been an issue with Jill. They just fell into their life as a threesome, as uncomplicated and easily as any other twosome. He and Dylan weren’t gay. Not quite. But they weren’t straight, either. They had tried, before Jill, to each date separate women but that first encounter, back in high school, where they both lost their virginity to the same girl, had cemented their needs. What they wanted was the power of three, and it made them both complete.

Dating one woman, sleeping with one woman, was pleasurable. Hell, Laura had certainly proven that! Already, though, he felt a longing for more. He imagined Dylan did, too. The complication now, though, was that Laura was spurning Dylan and deepening her relationship with Mike.#p#分页标题#e#

In the short term this was fine, but in the long run...what could he do? How could he mend the relationship between Dylan and Laura to make the triad complete?

Worse, though, was a niggling fear in the back of his mind. His heart. What if she preferred Dylan over him?

Opening up to Laura would be a whole other mess. “Hi, Laura. My partner, Dylan, found you on that dating website and figured you might be open to a long-term threesome. And, by the way, we’re billionaires. So...can we keep dating?” The deception was already over the top, strung out too long. A week, though, really— how could a week create such joy and do so much damage? How could their lives change so abruptly, so deeply, in such a short period of time?

There was no choice here. Whatever Laura decided was final. He couldn’t read her—just knew she liked him. A lot. Had she liked Dylan this much, too? If not, why? What had driven her away from him and into Mike’s arms?

The only way out was through. Through his heart, and hers. And Dylan’s. He would have to come clean to him, and soon, before this spiraled out of control.

It wasn’t fear that made him keep his mouth shut. It was exhilaration. Excitement. The secret of mine. Mine. Laura was his, for now. Only his. While he knew that wouldn’t sustain him in the long run, just as Dylan’s dating her, alone, wouldn’t do it for him, either, there was a heady confidence that came from scooping Dylan. He could never have imagined, never dreamed that Laura would spurn Dylan and turn to Mike, but here they were. This was how it had turned out, and now the only concern he had was that Laura would hate him once she knew that they knew each other.