Three Rings and a Rose (2 page)

Caedon glided his hands up the voluptuous curve of her hips then slid into the dip in her perfectly shaped waist before snaking between her body and the bed. Seeking and finding her supple breasts, he kneaded them in his hands. The full globes overflowed, and he took great pleasure in their size. “I love your beautiful breasts. They’re just like you…” he trailed off as he took her nipples between his fingers and rolled the distended nubs. “Perfect,” he finished with a secret smile.

A dip in the mattress alerted Caedon to Micah’s presence on the bed, and he glanced over his shoulder. He shamelessly admired the
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man he loved while he fucked the woman they both shared and adored.

“She is perfect,” Micah agreed as he crawled across the big bed.

His hand grazed Caedon’s back, and he trembled at Micah’s touch.

“And so are you.”

14

Mia Ashlinn

With a regretful groan, Caedon Asher awakened from his erotic dream then rolled over and flopped onto his back. The soft mattress jostled beneath him before catching his falling body. He twisted and turned, trying to untangle himself from the mass of sheets and blankets snarled tightly around his hips.

Giving up, Caedon threw his big arm across his face, blocking out the bright sunlight beating against his eyelids as it flooded the room through the shades his closest friend, Adeline Raines, had just opened.

Caedon heard Addy humming as she moved around his master bedroom.
Somebody’s in a damn good mood this morning.
Instead of saying some asshole thing to the one person in his life who truly cared about him, he pretended that she wasn’t there, and he was alone.
As
usual. I’m always alone. Even when there are hundreds of people
nearby, I’m fucking alone.
No matter who Caedon was with, he might as well be by himself. Without the two that mattered most to him, he didn’t care about having friends anymore.

Well, other than Addy. He didn’t include her, but that was primarily because she had been there for him
during
the whole scandal and subsequent fiasco with his last lady love. Besides, Addy was a tenacious thing and would probably just ignore him if he attempted to kick her out of his life.

The sound of clinking glass bottles filtered through the room, reminding him of the night before, and he thirsted for more alcohol of some sort.
I wonder if it’s too early for liquor.
It took him all of a second to think about whether or not getting shit-faced for the third time in two days was a good idea, especially at this time of day.
Of
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course it’s a bad idea, dumbass. The sun has only been up four hours,
and it’s a Sunday, for Christ’s sake.

Lately, drinking was Caedon’s favorite pastime. It was the only way he could forget for mere minutes at a time. Or, if he was lucky and drunk enough, he found oblivion for a few hours. Of course, he was probably passed out, but it didn’t matter. He was able to escape the memories that haunted him. And that was the entire point.

He used alcohol to survive and cope with all the bullshit of his past and his present. Each day that passed, he got worse, and he relied more and more on alcohol.
Thank God I’m between movies.

With his acting gigs growing by leaps and bounds, he had to find a way to get his head on straight. Most producers and directors didn’t appreciate an inebriated actor during filming. And neither did anyone else on the set. After all the blood, sweat, and tears he’d shed to get to the top of the acting world, he couldn’t afford to let anything or anyone topple him from his status as Hollywood’s Golden Boy.

“Wow, I didn’t know a person could drink this much in one sitting without a trip to the hospital,” Addy murmured softly, “
or
the morgue.” The gorgeous redheaded sprite was obviously talking to herself and not him. Otherwise, she would have made damn sure he heard every word—loud and clear—rather than making him strain to hear her.

Annoyed, Caedon grumbled something unintelligible despite his cottonmouth. He was surprised and rather proud that he could form any sound considering the way he presently felt. Between the pounding in his head and the nausea turning his stomach inside out, he could barely think past the dire need to crawl into a deep, dark hole and die. The foul taste plaguing his mouth, and the painful muscle aches were not helping him in the least.

“Get up,” Addy ordered, her deep, breathy voice sounding nothing like normal. She went from sultry and sexy to aggressive and angry.

The firmness in her tone wasn’t one he was familiar with, and he found it only served to piss him off. “I’ve found her!”
16

Mia Ashlinn

Found who? Oh, monkey butt.
Surely, she didn’t go looking for…God, it hurt to even think her name, especially today of all days.

June 3rd—the anniversary of the day he’d fucked everything up. After exactly two years without Gabriella Embry, he still couldn’t bear what he’d done to her, what he’d done to them. Hell, it hurt to remember what he’d done to their best friend, Micah Gunner, too.
I was a real
bastard, and I deserve to feel this shitty. No, I deserve to feel worse
than this. I’m getting off pretty damn easy.

“Caedon Matthew Asher,” Addy snapped. “You get that delicious ass of yours out of this bed right this instant. Do
not
make me come in there after you.”

Piss.
Caedon knew Addy, and he had better get his ass in gear.

That woman was quite inventive when it came to getting what she wanted. And right now, she wanted his undivided attention. From the sound of her voice, she didn’t just want it, she demanded and expected it.
Great. Just fucking great.

Caedon growled. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t,” Addy replied. “You love me to death…even when you want to be the cause of it.”

Hauling his arm away from his face, Caedon pried his eyes open.

He blinked several times as he attempted to force his eyes to adjust to the blinding sunlight inundating the room. The sunshine had been bad enough with his eyes closed. But damn, it was flat-out excruciating with his eyes wide open. “Close the fucking blinds, Addy. Please, just close them for me.”

Addy shrugged but did as he had asked. “All right, Caedon. No need to get snappy.”

Snappy? Shit, you haven’t seen snappy this morning, little girl.

When the room darkened a bit, Caedon rotated his head to the side where Addy stood. As usual, she looked stunning. The petite, vivacious beauty was a goddess among women. With her brown doe-eyes and her contagious smile, she’d topped more than one men’s magazine list for sexiest women alive. But predictably he felt nothing
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for her—at least, not sexually.
Like I’ve felt something for anyone in
the past two years.

Every time he turned around, a woman was throwing herself at him, and they weren’t the only ones. Men attempted to seduce him as often as women. Yet he felt no sexual stirrings, no physical yearnings.

His cock had shut down, just as his heart had.

It was rather ironic that after years of being a serial womanizer, Caedon had spent six months dating Gabriella, and that was the end of his love life. Even better, it was the end of his sex life. He could have his pick of lovers, but he wanted only one.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
If he was completely honest with himself, he wanted two. And his body constantly reminded him of that fact. A single thought about Gabriella
or
Micah, and he was ready to fuck like a damn machine. The thought of the two of them together was more than he
or
his celibate dick could handle.

As luck would have it, the two of them were the only people he desperately hungered to share. When several naked Playboy bunnies asked him to join them in a ménage, what had happened? A big, fat nothing had happened. They didn’t interest him in the least.

That disastrous scenario had been fun to politely turn down. The women had flipped out and accused him of all sorts of harebrained ideas about his sexuality. Of course, the tabloids had gotten wind of the story. Only they’d gotten it wrong. And the Playboy bunnies had flamed the fire by spilling all the supposed dirty details of their night with him.

The Bunnygate scandal had hit the news right after he and Gabriella had ended things. Since then, he’d been a hermit. If it weren’t for Addy, the world would probably be convinced he was asexual or whatever bizarre thing the press could cook up. Going out with her on occasion kept everyone at bay about his sexuality, not that it mattered to him. But in his glittering world, image was everything.

At least, that’s what his public relations team drilled into him all the goddamn time.

18

Mia Ashlinn

“Caedon?” Addy asked, her voice reminding him that she was in the room. “Where did you go?”

Raising his eyebrows, Caedon told her without words what they both knew. His mind was where it always was—with Gabriella and Micah.
I’m such a lame-ass, heartsick sucker.

“I don’t know why I even asked,” Addy muttered. “It’s a waste of my breath.” Walking to the edge of the bed, she lowered herself down, causing the mattress to sink slightly. She scooted back until her bottom bumped into his legs then dangled her legs off the side.

Clasping her hands in her lap, she glanced at him with too-perceptive eyes. “We need to talk, Caedon.”

“About?” he asked with feigned curiosity, prompting her to go on.

He had a general idea of what she wanted to discuss, but he thought it might be best to make sure he was correct. No need to stroll down that road if he didn’t have to.

“You know what,” Addy replied with a disappointed frown.

“Don’t insult either of our intelligence by pretending otherwise.”

“I would prefer to not get into this today,” he snapped. Sitting up too quickly, dizziness hit him harder than a two-by-four, and he amazingly felt worse than he had earlier. Falling back onto the bed with a grunt, he mentally cursed.
This day is going to be a fucking
disaster. I can feel it.
The alcohol looked better and better to him, even in the face of the bitch of a hangover he had.

“Then when?” she asked persistently. “Because I am sick of this.

I’m so damn tired of watching you self-destruct, Caedon. I love you dearly, and we have been through a lot together, but I have never seen you like this. Things were bad before, but something changed. I don’t know what it was. I just know it did and now you are scaring the hell out of me.”

Unfortunately, Caedon knew what had changed. He’d talked to Micah. Two months ago, he had called Micah, and the whole damn thing had blown up in his face. God, it had been bad.
Bullshit. It had
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been a fucking train wreck
. What had started out as a strained conversation had spiraled out of control in less than a minute.

* * * *

Two months ago, early April…

Caedon leaned back in his chair and lifted one long, lean leg to the top of his mahogany desk. Bringing up his second, he crossed one ankle over the other as he propped his feet atop the rigid surface. He glanced at the glass filled with The Macallan’s 1824 Limited Edition whisky sitting just to the right of his ankles then dropped his eyes to the cell phone in his hand.

Eyeballing each number he needed to dial with deep-seated apprehension, Caedon cursed himself quietly for allowing his anxiety to override his confidence.
What is it about Gabriella and Micah that
turns me into a fucking weenie? Oh yeah. That’s right. I’m in love
with them—both of them. Goddamn it.

Allowing his eyes to stray back to the tulip-shaped glass, the amber liquor called Caedon’s name, but he refused to answer. This was not something he should do while intoxicated. He needed to have a clear head, no matter how much his mouth watered for the ridiculously expensive drink.

Closing his eyes and taking a long, drawn-out breath to cleanse himself, Caedon mentally recited why this phone call was something he needed to do.
No, it’s something I have to do
. And he would do it—as soon as he figured out how to banish the nerves eating away at him.
I need to take lessons from Nike and “Just Do It.”
With that thought firmly entrenched in his mind, Caedon snapped open his eyes and started dialing. He ignored his shaky hands as his fingers stumbled over the telephone number—twice. Before he knew it, the phone was ringing, and he was fighting himself to let it continue to do so.

20

Mia Ashlinn

Luckily, Micah’s deep drawl rolled across the phone line after only two rings, and he didn’t have time to end the call. A thrill raced up Caedon’s spine at the sound of Micah’s sensual voice, and he felt hope blooming inside him.
Maybe I can fix this. Maybe we can work
this out and be friends again. Maybe, just maybe, the past four months
of working up my courage to make this call wasn’t a complete and
total waste.