Ecstasy Times Two Plus Three [The Dakota Dynasty 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (7 page)

Caleb’s pupils had adjusted sufficiently for him to see the owner of The Cattleman’s Paradise standing before the customers from New Oslo International. Her name was Candice Olssen, and since purchasing the tavern from her grandparents, she’d turned a reasonably successful steakhouse into the hottest place to drink and dine in the territory. Gone were the dowdy, utilitarian polyester waitress dresses that had never given a flattering appearance to any woman, no matter how beautiful or how physically blessed. In place of the polyester dress were Daisy Duke denims, halter-style tops, and either cowboy boots or stilettos with heels long enough they could be used for weapons. With a more than twenty-to-one ratio of men to women in and around New Oslo, the owner obviously knew how to play to her audience.

Though she now owned the tavern, she was dressed like the servers, and her blatant sensuality was jolting to Nick’s masculine senses. Though she obviously wore a bra, her white blouse had been rolled up and tied into a knot between her breasts to form a halter. She was showing a cock-hardening amount of cleavage, and a stomach that was made for kissing. Her curving hips were highlighted with a pair of denim short-shorts. Though sporting a few more pounds than optimal, she made her legs seem longer and more slender by wearing a pair of open-toed pumps with dramatic heels.

“Looking good, Candice,” Dylan said as he walked past her.

“You’re always a flirt,” she replied. “That’s one of the things I like about you.”

Candice, as hostess, directed them to a rectangular table that seated eight.

“Sister, why don’t you sit there,” Dylan said, pointing across the table from him. “And Nick, if you’d sit there”—he pointed to the chair just to her right—“and Caleb, if you sit there, I’ll be able to ask the last of my questions I have regarding your last trip, and be able to hear you over the din in here.”

For a flashing moment, Nick wondered whether Dylan suspected something of what had happened in Mumbai. When he looked around the tavern, he saw that it was packed to the rafters with oil workers and cowboys. Though it was only noon, it was noon on a Friday, so there were already oilrig workers and cowboys playing pool for money, and for those who were done working for the week, drinking beer. The place was only going to get louder as afternoon turned into evening.

An hour later, Caleb felt like he had been put into a gigantic pressure cooker. To be sitting so close to Lydia, but not being able to touch her and having to be conscious of wanting to look at her, was a slow torture for him. The Cattleman’s Paradise was famous for its steaks, but Caleb hardly tasted his as he ate it.

Lydia’s napkin slipped from the table to the floor. When she bent toward Caleb to reach down for it, he was given a glimpse down her blouse. Firm, extravagant breasts were lovingly held in a white bra with lace on the upper edge. Caleb felt as though lightning had suddenly shot through his veins, and his cock immediately reached a half-hard condition.

Torture. This is fucking torture.

* * * *

Lydia glanced at her wristwatch, a small, gold Rolex Oyster, and sighed wearily with pleasure. It was a few minutes to five, which meant that very shortly the workday would end. She intended on going home, making herself a gin martini or two, and watching
Casablanca
. What better movie to watch than one where lovers, because of circumstances beyond their control, can fall in love but can’t stay together in the end?

It had been a hellish day for Lydia. To sit between Caleb and Nick during lunch and not be able to touch them had made her twitchy for hours. And they had both seemed especially sexy that day, with Nick in his suit and tie and looking so sophisticated, and Caleb looking like he was a model for Ralph Lauren…

Lydia remembered they’d been dressed very much the same way when they had taken their return flight from Mumbai. Tall and muscular and handsome they’d been when she’d looked up at them while she knelt at their feet, sucking their cocks.

The thought made Lydia shiver. Had she actually done that, or was that just a dream? Or, perhaps, it was a nightmare? And she’d done it with that stewardess standing right there, watching her lewd actions, making her behavior even more obscene.

There was a knock on her office door a moment before it opened, and Dylan stuck his head inside.

“Hey, do you have a minute before we leave for the weekend?”

“Sure, come on in.” Lydia was grateful for the disturbance. It kept her from thinking about her actions in Mumbai, and on the 747 coming back to the States.

Dylan sat in one of the two chairs that faced Lydia’s desk. A few years younger than herself, they’d always been close as siblings.

“Can I ask you a question of a personal nature?” he asked.

Lydia felt an immediate twinge in her stomach. She felt as though icy-cold air had suddenly blown upon her. She and her brothers had made a point of never talking about their love lives because, particularly with the male Ambersons, the bedmates in their lives never lasted very long before getting replaced by a new one.

“Of course you can,” Lydia said, feigning nonchalance when, in reality, every instinct in her was screaming for her to get up and run out of the office as fast as her feet in high-heeled pumps could carry her.

“Have you got something going with Nick or Caleb?”

“Wow, talk about getting straight to the point!” Lydia tried to laugh a little, just to diminish the impact of the words. Whatever sound she’d managed to make didn’t much sound like a laugh, though. “I’ll grant you, they’re both handsome men, but they’re colleagues of mine, which means there’s no way in hell I’d ever let anything happen of a romantic nature.” She tried another laugh, failed miserably at sounding lighthearted, then promised herself to never try it again. Dylan knew her too well for her to be convincing. “I’m curious to know, though, what makes you ask?”

“Maybe I’m wrong, but there seemed to be a chemistry between you and the men at the meeting this morning, and during lunch. A tension I hadn’t noticed ever before. I was just thinking that maybe something happened during your trip to India.”

Dylan could have punched her in the stomach for the impact his words had on her.

“Thank you for your brotherly concern, but nothing happened. Like I said before, they’re both good-looking men, but I would never date a coworker. Besides, I’d have to pick between them, and I couldn’t do that.”

She was surprised when Dylan’s eyes narrowed on her. She could tell he was thinking, she just couldn’t read his thoughts.

“You know,” he said after a weighty silence, “it isn’t necessarily true that office romances always cause train wrecks of the heart, just as it isn’t true that you’d necessarily have to choose one over the other. You might want to have them both.”

If the original question was a punch to the stomach for Lydia, the statement, spoken as fact, that she didn’t have to make a choice between the men, was a knockout fist to the chin. For a moment, Lydia felt light-headed. She placed her palms flat on her desk and lowered her gaze for a couple seconds.

“Brother, that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard you say.” She lifted her gaze to his. “The fine folks here would go out of their freakin’ minds if they ever thought a woman had more than one boyfriend. This is North Dakota, not California, after all. It’s New Oslo, not San Francisco.”

“If they knew about it, sure, they’d all go a little nutty,” Dylan replied, his gaze holding hers. “But that’s only if they knew about it.” He looked away, and Lydia could tell that he was deliberating what exactly he would say next. “I know of a relationship here in town that’s a
ménage à trois
.”

Lydia’s jaw dropped open. “You’re kidding me? Who?”

Dylan smiled and shook his head. “The information was divulged to me because it was necessary that I know about it. I really can’t let you know who the—how shall I put this?—the guilty parties are. But I can promise you this, there’s a woman in New Oslo with two men in her life.”

“Sure, there are two men,” Lydia said, instantly relieved of her worst fears, “but the men don’t know each other. I mean, they’re not sharing her, she’s just being a two-timer.”

Dylan shook his head. “No. It’s a legitimate
ménage à trois
romance.”

“And it’s love? Really love, not just a lot of sex?”

“As near as I can tell. Anyway, all three of them seem awfully happy with what they’ve got going.”

“And you won’t tell me who they are?”

“Sworn to secrecy.”

“And you can keep a secret?” Lydia’s hands began to tremble. When Dylan nodded, she said, “Against my better judgment, I had a fling, I guess you’d call it. First with Nick, then with Caleb. I can’t believe I did it, but I did and that’s a fact. But it’s over now. It’s behind me. Now I just have to get on with my life and never again behave so foolishly.”

Dylan got to his feet. “Why don’t you come to my place? I don’t think you’ve seen the new condo yet. I think you’ll find it quite interesting.”

He’s taking this news damned calmly for finding out that his older sister acted like a slut.

Lydia looked at her brother’s profile as he turned into the parking lot of what had previously been a hotel, but was now being turned into luxury condominiums. A dozen construction workers and a foreman were outside, looking over a blueprint.

“I’ll bet you’ll turn a sweet profit on this when it’s finished,” Lydia said, opening the SUV’s door and getting out. “Why didn’t you let me get in on the action, though? I’d have loved to be a partner with you on this.”

“It’s a long story,” Dylan replied.

“I’ve got time.” The more tight-lipped her brother got with details, the more curious Lydia was of them. “And there’s no time like the present.”

Dylan chuckled and didn’t say anything, heightening Lydia’s curiosity.

They stepped into the front lobby, where the uniformed man behind the desk gave Dylan a professional smile, and stood.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Amberson. It’s good to see you again,” the man said, extending his hand.

Lydia watched as the two shook hands over the desk, then noticed that the man had a pistol in a holster at his hip. Having an armed guard at the front desk seemed a bit much to Lydia’s thinking, and she made a mental note to ask her brother about that, too, when she got him alone.

“I have a guest, Arthur,” Dylan said. “This is my sister, Lydia. Lydia, this is the man responsible for making sure that only people who live in this building are allowed to enter this building. Isn’t that right, Arthur?”

“Yes, sir. Nobody gets past me, no matter what.”

Arthur sat back down and then tapped in a numbered code into a computer keyboard. When he was finished, the lights above the elevator turned on, a soft chime sounded, and the double doors slid open.

“Security,” Dylan explained as he headed for the elevators. “Without the front-desk guard putting in the code, the elevator doesn’t work. The doors to the stairway are exit only.”

“My, my, my,” Lydia said as she stepped into the elevator. “Security is tighter here than at corporate headquarters.”

Dylan smiled cryptically and touched the button for the top floor. When the doors opened and Lydia stepped out, she was shocked to see polished mahogany paneling surrounding her. From the outside, the building looked a bit tattered and rundown, but from the inside, at least on this floor, it was the very definition of opulence itself.

“Over here,” Dylan said, reaching into his pocket for his keys. “We’ve got the entire top floor.”

“We?”

He opened the door and stepped aside for Lydia to enter. When she did and looked around, the word “opulent” seemed entirely too understated. The living room boasted a flat-screen television large enough to be a movie screen, a leather sofa at least seven feet long, with two matching wing chairs, also in oxblood leather.

“It’s gorgeous,” Lydia said quietly.

Movement to her left caught her attention. When Lydia looked, she watched as a voluptuous woman, completely naked, stepped out of the bathroom, wrapping a white towel around her head.

“Darling, is that you?” the woman called out.

Dylan chuckled softly and replied, “Honey, we’ve got company.”

The woman snapped her head up, her jaw dropping open in horror. “Damn you, Dylan!” she shouted, turning and running away.

“Oh, my God,” whispered Lydia, recognizing Candice Olssen, the owner of her favorite restaurant in New Oslo. “You’re having an affair with Candice?”

Just when Lydia was going to ask her brother why he’d kept his romance with Candice a secret, Sergeant Alvin “Bulldog” Herndon of the New Oslo Sheriff’s Department stepped into the room. He was in uniform, and by the way he walked, he was in familiar surroundings.

Lydia turned to her brother, her mouth open. For perhaps the first time in her life, she was shocked speechless. He gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged his broad shoulders.

“Damn,” Bulldog said, stepping closer. “I didn’t know you were bringing anyone here.”

“I suppose I should have given you fair warning,” Dylan replied, “but I didn’t get much of a chance with Lydia in the Cadillac with me.”

For Lydia, it suddenly seemed as though there wasn’t any air left in the room. Was this really what it looked like? Dylan, Bulldog, and Candice a threesome?

Candice stepped out from what Lydia suspected was a bedroom, now wearing a white silk robe that covered her body from neck to below her knees without in any way hiding her voluptuous curves.

“I’m sorry,” Candice said, stepping forward. The movement of her body made it clear to Lydia that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the robe. “You gave me quite a shock.”

“You’re not half as shocked as I am,” Lydia replied truthfully. She turned to Dylan and added, “Little brother, I think it’s time you leveled with big sister.”

“This is exactly what it looks like. Bulldog, Candice, and I are in a loving
ménage
relationship.” Once again, his shoulders rose and fell beneath his lightweight herringbone suit coat. “It’s love, big sister. Real love. Just unconventional as hell.”