Neighbors (Twin Estates #1) (13 page)

She was glad she'd waited till Liam, because it was perfect for the two of them. She was on the tall side at five-foot-six, but she was very slender. Liam was lanky, as well as built – he was able to hold up her tiny frame, no problem. Strong enough that he could pin her in place, tall enough that he could thrust upwards at a perfect angle, and his dick big enough that he could hit all the right spots.

And even better, in her mind, was the fact that she couldn't really do anything in return. She could only receive. She was being held in place, and she was being
fucked
. It was glorious. The steam was rising around them, sweat was mingling with water, and she wasn't taking in oxygen anymore. Only him.

“
Fuck,
” she finally managed words. “Too soon. It's too good.”

“No such thing,” he was breathing hard as his hips slammed against her, over and over again.

“But I'm gonna come,” she warned him. Words that had embarrassed her once upon time, now falling so easily from her lips.

A good against-the-wall fucking will do that to me, I guess.

“
Yes,
please, baby, come again. I want to feel this pussy come again,
need
to feel that on my cock,” he begged.

“
Oh god. Oh my god. Holy shit. Oh my god.
”

“Just let go,” he whispered. “Just fucking come for me. Come so fucking hard for me.”

She hadn't really needed to be told twice, but his dirty talk turned her on so much, she still appreciated it. She also did as instructed, coming so hard she elicited a shout from him. All her muscles clamped down and she shrieked. He yelled again and she vaguely realized she'd startled his own orgasm out of him. She could feel all his muscles tensing up with the effort to hold her in place. She should've been concerned about him dropping her, or them both falling, but she didn't care. She even went limp in his arms, basking in the aftershocks of a humongous orgasm.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, both of them desperately trying to breathe in the steamy air. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore, and Liam sat in the bottom of the shower, Katya still wrapped round him. After a couple minutes, though, the hot water became too much for her. She kissed her way across his chest as she backed off him.

“That,” she sighed, dragging her teeth over his nipple. “Was
amazing.
”

“No,” he argued, cupping one of her breasts. “
You're
amazing. Now help me up.”

They adjusted the temperature of the water and rinsed off together. Katya started laughing when she realized all of Liam's clothes were in the shower with them – he even still had his pants around his ankles. She continued laughing when he put all the wet clothing back on and walked out of the stall.

They trekked onto the BART together, joking around and teasing each other. They were both standing up near a door, clinging to hanging straps, and when he kissed her, she didn't care that they were in a very public setting. That he was soaking wet and they were making other passengers uncomfortable. She kissed him back just as hard, and they made out the rest of the way home.

Only a big shindig at the club had Liam pulling away at her front door. He hugged her goodbye, which oddly felt more intimate than anything they'd shared just an hour before – sex was just sex. A hug, that was kinship.
Friendship
. She squeezed him hard, but wondered what exactly it all meant.

Wait. I'm dating Wulf. And am apparently friends-with-benefits with Liam. How is
any of this
a good idea!?

*

“I think something's wrong with me,” Katya whispered.

“Huh? Did you say something?” Tori asked, turning away from the pot of boiling water.

Monday was Katya's day off. It wasn't usually Tori's, but when Katya had crawled out of bed around noon, still sore from her strip-aerobics work out – and the workout she got in the shower – the other girl had been puttering around the apartment. She'd come home early to check on her friend, she'd said, but then after seeing her, Tori had decided to stay home.

“This isn't normal,” Katya cleared her throat and spoke up.

“What isn't normal?” Tori asked, adding pasta to the water before heading back to the kitchen table.

“This. What I'm doing.”

“Which is ...”

“Dating one guy while sleeping with another.”

“Oh, you're still on about that.”

“Because it's not normal!” Katya yelled. “I thought I didn't want to sleep with Liam again, but it just … happened. How is that possible!? Like, it's not like '
oops, I ate this whole bag of chips on my own
' or '
oops, I went the wrong way down a one-way street
', or something. '
Oops, I fell on this dudes dick, over and over, for thirty minutes straight
' – even I know it doesn't work like that!”

“I'm sorry, I honestly don't see what the problem is,” Tori said. “You're complaining about two good looking, nice guys wanting to bang you.
Actually
banging you. Talk about a problem I'd like to have.”

“But it's weird for me. It's like when I'm with Wulf, he is literally all I can think about. All I can focus on. Seriously, everything just stops existing – my career, my goals, Liam, everything. But then when I'm with Liam, he's just so fun and nice and sexy. It's like I can't help myself,” Katya tried to explain.

“So why bother? I'm being serious. You said you've told both guys about each other, and neither of them flipped out. If anything, Liam encourages your relationship with Wulf. If they're both okay with it, why shouldn't you be? Have fun, be young and reckless. When you get tired of one, drop him and focus on the other,” Tori said.

“I guess it just feels wrong. And I had this thought ...”

“Oh god. When you think, I get scared.”

“I'm worried I'm a bad person, because while I like being with Liam, and sex with him is sort of bizarre and new and different and all that jazz, I worry that I'm using him,” Katya said.

“How do you mean?”

“Well … okay, for instance. That date I just had with Wulf? I was nervous and freaked out. But then I was like wait a minute, I did the whole sex-kitten routine on Liam, and it worked, so why not try it on Wulf? And after our hot shower sex escapade, after I got home, I kept thinking … wow, I have to try some of those strip-aerobics moves on Wulf. I have to have sex in the shower
with Wulf
. It's like Liam is my practice dummy – Wulf is the real deal. That's so fucked up!” Katya finished explaining.

“Okay, so normally, I'd agree with you, except one little thing – Liam knows all this. You guys talked about it the other night when he was here, about him being like your Jedi master and how the other guy should be thanking him for making you so freaky now. You're not dating Liam – you're dating Wulf. Liam is well aware of all of this,” Tori said.

Katya glared at the table while she picked at the label on her beer bottle. It was all true, but that didn't mean Katya felt good about it. She was still hung up on the fact that sleeping with two men at once was …
wrong
. She felt like she was doing something bad. Wrong. Like she was a
slut
.

And why does thinking all those things get me so hot!? I'm broken. Liam cracked me, and Wulf broke me, right down the middle.

“Maybe I'll just go over it with him again, just to be sure,” Katya mumbled. Tori groaned.

“Why!? You're just gonna scare him away, Katya. You push people away! Just let him be your friend. Let him sexify you and turn you out, and then use those tricks to catch you a wolf, okay?”

“But I still feel like being with two men at the same time is -”

“Just stop it right now,” Tori's voice suddenly got serious, and she was pointing her finger in Katya's face. “When George Clooney or James Franco or whatever famous slutty dude wants to bang however many chicks, no one cares. But you sleep with two guys, who both say it's okay and give you approval to do so, and you still feel guilty.
That's
what's fucked with society. There is nothing wrong with what you're doing. You're not hurting anyone. You're actually making people feel good. Jesus,
you're
finally feeling good. If you honestly feel like it's wrong, then fine, stop. But if you like what's going on, you like sleeping with both of them, then fuck it. Ride this train for as long as you can, cause the only one who is going to stop it,
is you.
”

Katya stared at her friend for a couple moments. Tori was rarely ever serious. If anything, Katya was the level-headed “adult” between the two of them. Tori dated lots of men and slept around. Katya had never thought less of her because of it, but for whatever reason, she held herself to a different standard. Why? She shook her head and managed a laugh.

“I don't give you enough credit, I swear. You're beautiful and smart. I should listen to you more often,” she sighed.

“Duh. Oh, pasta!” Tori leapt out of her chair and hurried to the stove, stirring at the pot that was threatening to boil over.

“What about the garlic bread?” Katya asked, glancing at the loaf that was sitting on the counter.

“Oh, this fucking oven is broken again!” Tori growled, kicking at the front of the stove.

“Again?”

“Yeah! And I'm positive it's dead – you can't fix it this time.”

“I could try -”

“No,” Tori interrupted. “It's not your job to fix it. It's the management companies job to fix it, and have they ever? No. It's ridiculous. You're a fucking baker, and you can't bake in your own home.”

“I'll talk to Liam.”

“Good. Tell him how shitty they are about fixing stuff.”

They were silent for a while. Tori puttered around, straining the noodles and leaving the colander in the sink before moving onto the sauce. Katya stared at the broken stove for a while, mourning the scones she'd been planning to make. Then her mind went back to what they'd been talking about and she heaved a big sigh.

“Soooo … if you were me, you'd keep seeing them both?”

“Honey, if I were you, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I'd be in the middle of a sexy-man-sandwich,” Tori snorted.

“Okay, that's definitely not happening for me.”

“Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it.”

“I like penis, but not that much.”

“I think this is good for you. I really, honestly do. I've never seen you so confident, so vibrant, so … happy. These men are good for you, so that tells me that whatever you're doing, it can't be bad.”

Tori's voice was soft, but there was weight behind it. She really meant what she was saying, and she wanted her friend to hear it. Katya smiled and got up, walking around the table so she could hug her friend from behind.

“You really are the best,” she sighed.

“I know. Now go set the table. After I dish us up, you are going to finally give me all the explicit details on naughty Mr. Sex Club Owner.”

“... what do you think?”

Wulfric Stone cocked his head to the side, eyeing a large piece of artwork. It was by some local artist. Up and coming, supposedly. The simple frame worked well with the minimalist style of the living room, but the artwork itself looked out of place. Heavy slashes of black across stark white. Nothing soft or gentle about it.

Since when do I like soft and gentle? Hmmm …

“Get rid of it. Something with blues. Blues and yellows. We're showing this house in two days, and I want it to be perfect.”

Normally Wulf didn't bother with the staging of homes, he left that to the designers and decorators. This particular house was worth a lot of money, though, and had been on the market for a long time – the owners had only recently switched to Wulf's agency. He wanted the home sold, and he wanted it sold
yesterday
.

Wulf's businesses, combined with the multiple properties he owned throughout California, made more than enough money that if he never wanted to work again, he didn't have to – he'd thought of retiring early plenty of times. But Wulf was a mover by nature. He hated being still. He always had to be in motion. Doing something, going somewhere. Making a deal, swimming a mile, solving a problem.

Swimming had been his passion in school, but then his parents had gotten divorced. It had gotten nasty, and though his mother had managed to hold onto the house, it hadn't necessarily been a good thing. It meant a lot of changes. She'd had to work for the first time in her life – and so had Wulf.

That's why he'd never pursued swimming as a career. Watching his mother struggle had killed something inside him. Had placed a solid, unbreachable wall between him and his father. He'd promised himself he'd never be stupid enough to jeopardize his own well-being, or his financial stability, for another human being. If his mother had been less concerned with “being in love” and more concerned with being able to take care of her family, she wouldn't have found herself in such a mess. What if it hadn't been divorce? What if his father had just died? His mother had never worked before the divorce. Had never even thought to save money for herself, to have an education so she could work, if ever there was a need.

Stupid. So stupid.

That would never happen to him. He'd concentrated on his grades in high school, and swimming had been his escape. His stress reliever. He got a full ride to Princeton because of his abilities in the pool. Graduated with honors because of his abilities in the classroom. As a present, his father had given him his first building – an expensive, historic, apartment building in downtown San Francisco, a property his dad had inherited and cherished.

Wulf immediately sold it. Fuck his father's legacy, he didn't want any ties to the man that weren't necessary. Wulf turned around and invested that money in more buildings, then even more. Thus The Stone Agency was born.

He had a knack for business. Marketing came easy to him, and when he put his mind to it, he could be very charming. He was good at making sales and he fostered great relationships within the realty community. His agency grew, and his reputation even more so. He was a train of success that couldn't be slowed down. Couldn't be stopped. Couldn't be derailed.

Though if he was completely honest with himself, an intriguing little baker was coming the closest, of anyone or anything, to doing all those things.

He was playing with fire where she was concerned, he knew. Wulf rarely dated, and when he did, it was for one purpose only. Women were just another business deal to him. Sex was a transaction, and sometimes that took work. Katya was just another transaction. Sweet, innocent, former girl-next-door, Katya Tocci.

Only, she'd surprised him. No, not with her boldness – he'd been expecting that, he paid attention. It was the woman herself. She wasn't scared of him. Nervous, maybe, but not intimidated like some women were. She also didn't give two fucks about his money or his reputation. She was more interested in talking about their families, asking after his sisters, curious about his time in school.

It was kind of a novel experience. She was genuinely interested in him. She was nice to him. And sometimes she looked at him with so much fascination and adoration, it stole his breath away. Like he was a present for her.

He'd never felt that way before – like he was a gift to someone. Like a money train, yes. Like he owed something, like he could do something, like he was a trophy, or a prize, sure. He'd grown up with his father treating him like he was an afterthought – then when he'd become a successful adult, as a business partner. His mother loved him, but she was always so concerned with his sisters, so worried about if he was eating right, if he was going to settle down, if she needed to be doing something, saving someone, mothering everybody. His partners, the women he slept with, most of his friends, they were all more interested in what he could for for them. How he could help them.

But to Katya, he was just Wulf. Just a pleasant surprise, in her somewhat dull life.

She had no clue that she was turning out to be exactly the same for him.

Not good.
Not good at all
. He didn't want to look at her with fascination and adoration. He didn't want to think of her as a gift. She was a sexy mystery that he was helping to unravel. Seeing how far she was willing to bend for him, before she broke and realized what an asshole he really was – then life could return to normal.

A sexy mystery, Tocci. That's all you can be to me.