An Indecent Proposition (29 page)

Erik used his most calm, reasonable voice, the one he only pulled out when he saw Keegan starting to lose it.

Keegan wasn’t in any danger of losing his shit, but his brain wasn’t where Erik needed him to be. Which was aligned with his. They needed to present a united front if they were going to tie her more tightly to them.

It’s what he wanted so that’s what they’d do.

And even though Keegan hadn’t said anything, Erik knew it’s what he wanted as well.

Keegan caught and held his gaze and Erik nodded, which just made Keegan sigh.

“Breakfast in fifteen. Don’t be late.”

Which Erik took to mean, “Don’t get distracted and try to get in Jules’ pants.”

And he would have if he was a total douche. Which he was not.

Instead, he nodded, waved Jules into the bathroom in front of him, then waited for her to emerge with her face washed and her hair in a ponytail on the top of her head.

She looked like a teenager, dressed in oversized flannel pants and baggy t-shirt, with no makeup and her hair swaying back and forth.

Giving him a sidelong glance, she stopped by the door to the hall. “Don’t give me that look. You heard what Keegan said. You won’t get any breakfast if we’re not down there.”

He smiled back at her, the action coming much more naturally with her than it did with anyone else. “Yeah, but you know if we don’t show up, he’ll come looking for us.”

She tried to curb a smile and wasn’t quite successful. “But I need to eat, especially if you want to…play more later.”

Heat hit him low in the gut, making his already half-hard cock rise to full hard-on. “Then by all means, please, go downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

With a full smile this time, she slipped out of the room.

True to his word, it only took him five minutes to join Keegan and Jules, who were already at the table.

Keegan didn’t look up when he entered but Jules did. Her smile was warm but her eyes… She’d been thinking a little too much.

Walking over to the stainless behemoth that was Keegan’s stove, he served himself a stack of pancakes, flipped the ones on the griddle that needed to be flipped then took a seat at the square black table in front of a bay window overlooking the backyard.

Erik took a bite of Keegan’s excellent pancakes and swallowed. “Here’s what I think. Keegan and I have made it clear we want you. We…Well,” he shot a look at Keegan, who simply stared back, “I have no problem sharing you with Keegan for as long as you’ll have us. You don’t seem to have a problem with that so let’s just get this part out of the way.”

“What part?” Jules looked genuinely curious, a slight curve to her lips as her eyes narrowed.

“The part where this gets messy with other people’s opinions and ideas about morality and the way things should be.”

“And how do we manage that?”

Keegan’s quiet voice and intense stare let Erik know he had his partner’s undivided attention. And that Keegan wasn’t quite as onboard as Erik would like.

“By letting everyone think she’s seeing only you, Keegan.”

Keegan’s gaze narrowed even farther but it was Jules who said, “You mean hide the fact that I’m sleeping with both of you.”

Erik nodded. “I don’t want you to take any shit because of us. I know how cruel people can be when they think you’re doing something they think is wrong.” He glanced at Keegan. “We both do. So when we go out, you’re Keegan’s date. You hold his hand. You kiss only him. I’m just along for the ride. No one will think twice.”

Her gaze narrowed on his. “Is this because of your scars? Do you think that because of the way you look, no one will have any doubt that I’d only want to see Keegan?”

He nodded again. “Yes. Exactly. What we do in private is no one’s business. Society and their morals can all go to hell.”

“Then why can’t we just tell everyone to fuck off and
do
what we want?” Jules asked.

“Because you live here.” Erik leaned forward. She had to see that he was doing this for her. “You work here. Your mom lives here and she’s already dealt with enough crap. I don’t want to give you up. I believe this is the only workable solution for all of us.”

She paused and he had no idea what she was thinking, her expression calm. Even her next statement didn’t give him a clue.

“So you want me to lie to everyone and tell them I’m only dating Keegan.”

Was she pissed? Was that the hard tone he heard in her voice?

“It’s not a lie. You are dating Keegan. No one else needs to know our personal business.”

Keegan and Jules exchanged a glance before transferring all of their attention back to him. He felt the weight of their stares like a physical force.

Jules wanted to say something, something he wouldn’t like.

Why? He couldn’t understand why she wasn’t immediately agreeing to his plan. It really was the only viable solution, especially for Jules.

And Keegan should be backing him up on this. But when he looked at his friend, Keegan looked pissed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked Keegan.

“Nothing.” Keegan shook his head, meeting his gaze head-on. “Not one damn thing. If that’s how you want to play this, I’m fine with it if Jules is.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

Keegan didn’t respond to him. Instead, he turned to Jules. “It’s not up to me. Are you okay with this?”

She hesitated long enough that Erik thought she was going to say no. Then she nodded slowly. “If that’s what you want, Erik, then I’m fine with it, too.”

Yes, it’s what he wanted. It’s what was best for all of them.

So why did it seem like neither Jules nor Keegan were as thrilled as he was?

Chapter Three

“Did you have a good time last night?”

Jules hadn’t exactly sneaked into the house but she had been hoping not to have to face her mom. At least, not right away.

After Keegan had dropped her off, giving her a lingering kiss in the car before walking her to the front door, she’d been hoping to have a few hours to herself to think. Sunday mornings her mom usually went to breakfast with her best friend, Cookie, before they headed to an early movie.

Apparently not this morning.

“Hey, Mom. What are you doing home?”

Her mom stood in the doorway to the kitchen, wearing an expression all too familiar to Jules from her wild-ass teen years.

“I thought maybe you’d want to talk.”

More like Mom wanted to talk. And since she loved her mom, she nodded. “Can I change first?”

“Sure, honey. Come back to the kitchen then. I made cookies last night.”

Ooh, definitely a serious talk when Mom busted out the homemade cookies.

“Sounds good. Give me a few minutes.”

She ran through the shower, threw on sweats and an old, soft t-shirt proclaiming her mom’s love of Abba, and headed back to the kitchen.

Her mom already sat at the table, staring out the small window into the tiny backyard of the tiny single home Jules had grown up in. Somehow, her mom had managed to keep the house out of the bank’s hands. And after Jules had paid off all of their other debts, she still had more than enough money to pay off the house. Which she planned to do…as soon as she came clean about how she’d gotten the money.

Heading for the fridge, Jules poured herself a glass of milk then sat across from her mom and snagged a cookie.

“So, your dates from last night.” Her mom didn’t waste any time. “They gave you the money, didn’t they?”

She sighed and took a bite of cookie loaded with chocolate chips. “Yes.”

“And what did you have to do for it?”

She held her mom’s steady gaze, needing to choose her words carefully. She didn’t want her to hate Keegan and Erik. “Can I give you a little background first? It might help.”

Her mom’s eyebrows lifted. “Background. Sure. Background is okay.”

She started with Erik and how he’d gotten his scars, knowing it would soften her mom’s defenses. Explained how Erik and Keegan had built TinMan into the company it was today, a very successful company that continued to grow. Told her how they’d been friends in college, how they’d stuck together, even when it looked like they could lose everything they’d worked for because of the explosion.

“They sound like amazing men.” Her mom took advantage of Jules’ pause to get more tea. “That still doesn’t tell me why they gave you enough money to pay off our debt and then some.”

No, it didn’t. “A few weeks before Christmas, I waitressed their Christmas party for Carol. Erik saw me, wanted to ask me out but…”

“His scars,” her mom said.

“Yeah, his scars. He sat in a room by himself watching the party on monitors, connected to Keegan through an earbud.”

Her mom’s expression melted with compassion and Jules knew it was time to drop the rest.

“Erik didn’t think I’d ever consider going out with him so he and Keegan offered me half a million dollars,” she sighed as her mom’s eyes widened with shock, “for one night. For me to have sex with Keegan so Erik could watch. I wasn’t supposed to know Erik was there but I figured it out. And before you have a meltdown, please realize that I never would’ve gone to bed with either of them if I hadn’t wanted them. Not for all the money in the world.”

Her mom’s eyes widened. “Oh, honey—”

“Don’t freak.” Jules held her hands up in front of her. “Okay? Just…try not to freak. I like them, Mom. Both of them. A lot. But they’re a package deal and I’m okay with that. They treat me great.” And holy hell, the sex was awesome. But she wasn’t going there with her mom. Not yet. Maybe not ever. “They treat me more than great, actually. They both have issues but name me one person who doesn’t. And what we do in private shouldn’t matter a damn to anyone.”

Her mom took a deep breath, nibbling on her bottom lip as she formulated an answer. “Is this…relationship serious?”

“Do you mean are we talking rings and place settings? Not yet. We’re having fun. We’re getting to know each other. But, yeah, it could be serious.”

Her mom shook her head. “Wow.”

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

Her mom laughed but the sound held no amusement. “I’m not sure what you want me to say. You just told me two men paid you to sleep with them and you did it to pay off our debt.”

Jules winced at the disappointment in her mom’s tone but she had to get her to see that wasn’t the entire story. “That’s not why I slept with them. Yes, the money got me to Keegan’s house that first night but that’s not why I stayed.”

“And why did you stay?”

“Because I connected with them. Because we fit together. Because when I’m with them, I feel part of a whole.”

“Oh, honey, don’t you think you’re rushing into this whole arrangement pretty fast?”

“I know it seems fast but I’m not talking about marrying them. I’m just talking about spending time with them.”

Grimacing, her mom walked to the fridge, reached in, and pulled out the carton of chocolate milk before sitting opposite Jules again.

“I’m not going to pretend I like this.” Her mom shook her head. “Or understand it. But the money…”

“I know what it looks like. But I’m not sorry I took it. And I refuse to give a damn about what other people say. Those men saved our asses. And even if you take the money out of the situation completely, I’d still want them both.”

Her mom took a sip of chocolate milk then a bite of cookie. “People are going to talk.”

“I know. And I’m willing to put up with it. But Erik…”

After a short pause, her mom prompted, “Erik…what?”

“He wants me and Keegan to pretend we’re dating and that Erik’s just a third wheel.”

“Well, it’s not pretend if you actually
are
dating.” Her mom started to look a little less stressed. “And it seems like the perfect solution. It’ll keep the gossips at bay.”

“Mom, the only people whose opinions matter are the ones in this with me. Keegan and Erik. And you. ” She paused. “When Dad—”

“No.” Her mom shook her head. “Your dad’s gone. He did what he did and we survived. What other people said hurt, but nothing hurt worse than what that man did to our marriage and our family. I’d cut off his balls if I thought I could get away with it. But he gave me you and it’s really hard to hate a man who gave you the most wonderful thing in your life.”

Jules didn’t know what to say about that so she grabbed her mom’s hand across the table and squeezed.

“Sweetie, I still don’t see a problem with the way Erik wants to handle things. It seems like a good idea. We live in a small town, not Philly or New York. People are going to talk. And it’s going to get bad. Erik’s suggestion seems reasonable.”

“And I don’t want to lie about our relationship. I’m pretty sure part of the reason Erik wants it this way is because he wants to remain in his little hole, away from the world.”

“I don’t see how letting people believe you’re only dating one of these men would be lying. Although I see your point about Erik. But he’s a grown man, honey. You have to take him as he is because you’re not going to change him.” Her mom’s wry smile popped out. “I learned the hard way that men aren’t going to change their ways and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Jules shook her head. “No. I can’t believe that. If I do, then there’s no hope for Erik to get on with his life.”

“He was here, wasn’t he? He took you out to dinner. What else do you want from the man?”

The question made her stop and think and the only thing she could come up with was, “Maybe everything.”

* * *

“Erik,” Keegan called out as he opened the front door to Erik’s house. “You home?”

“No, he’s not. He went to the lab. What do you want, Keegan?”

Keegan stifled a sigh as he pulled the door closed behind him.

Katrina stood in the doorway to Erik’s living room. Dressed in jeans that looked starched, a cream cable-knit sweater, her blond hair combed back and held with a clip at her neck, she looked wealthy, imperious, and cold. If she had superpowers, she’d be able to freeze a man into a block of ice at a hundred paces.

Maybe other people saw her differently but he didn’t think so. She’d always been like this, at least for as long as Keegan had known her.

She’d been a challenge and, yeah, he realized that’d been part of her appeal. He’d wanted to be the man who cracked through that outer shell. He hadn’t realized it wasn’t a shell. That hardness went all the way through.

Reaching for calm, because all he wanted to do was shake some of that attitude out of her, Keegan stood his ground, “Hello, Katrina. How are you?”

Staring at him through narrowed eyes, she didn’t answer right away. Probably looking for hidden meaning in his words.

After a few seconds, she sighed. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

Oh, so very polite. He could do polite. And get the hell out before he said anything to jeopardize what seemed like a truce.

“I’m glad to hear that. Sorry to have disturbed you.”

He turned to leave but before he could, Katrina said, “Keegan, wait. Can I have a few minutes of your time?”

He smoothed out his expression, made sure none of his impatience showed. It’d only make things worse.

Facing her again, he nodded.

Her hand rose to play with her necklace, a heavy gold chain with what had to be a five-carat sapphire hanging from it. “Erik came to me for information. I just wanted you to know that I never would have poked my nose into your business otherwise.”

Keegan’s stomach tightened into a lead ball. “What information did he want from you?”

Katrina’s chin went up and she managed to look down her nose at him even though she was several inches shorter. “I found the company that ordered the sabotage.”

That lead ball became a red-hot bubble of lava. “And how exactly did you do that?”

Her mouth thinned even more. “By looking. For three years, you and Erik trusted the police to do their job. They didn’t. They wrote off the explosion as an accident because it was easy and it was made to look like one. They didn’t dig deep enough. And you kept telling Erik to let it go, to forget—”

“I wanted him to move on. Jesus, can’t you see he needs to let this go?”

Finally, he saw emotion shimmer in her eyes. “How can he when every time he tries to talk to you about the explosion, you deflect him onto something else or blow him off? Damn it, Keegan, why were you so sure no one rigged that explosion?”

Katrina’s voice had risen to a level he hadn’t heard since the night she gave back his ring. Actually, she’d thrown it in his face but he couldn’t think about that now. Not on top of the bombshell she’d just dropped.