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"Well, she is right. I love her, pain in the ass that she is. And she loves you. I even find you mildly tolerable. I think we should get rid of Rory and replace him with Des." Marcus tilted his head toward Elaine. "He'd be a much cooler son, I promise."
Rory snorted. "If we'd replace anybody, it'd be the obnoxious Yankee that Thomas dragged home. Des at least was born in the right part of the country."
"I was originally a mid-westerner. God help me," Marcus said.
"Still a northerner, dude. Check your geography."
Marcus bared his teeth at him and turned his attention back to Des. "Tyler also has a couple guest houses on his Gulf property. If you decide to do it, you may be down there for a few weeks, or have to return for follow ups. He said you're welcome to use one of them whenever you need it. As long as I don't come, so he doesn't have to put up with me."
Julie gripped his hand at the same time she closed her other one around Des's. "Liar. He'd welcome you just so you could fence post."
"That's riposte, which is a maneuver in fencing," Marcus said, while her eyes danced. "Proof how far a liberal arts education will get you."
"I like my word better. It included both ideas, which is clever and outside the box. That's what a liberal arts education will get you."
"If you find enough business graduates to fund your clever and outside the box ideas," Marcus retorted. But he squeezed her hand once more before they separated so Elaine could put down the vanilla ice cream. The scoop was already tantalizingly embedded in the creamy treat. Julie eyed it and took a deep breath. Maybe just a small sliver of pie...
Despite the waning afternoon, a nap was in order once they returned to Marcus and Thomas's house. Des told her he'd join her soon. Marcus was going to take him to his office in the refurbished barn to conference with Jon and the research director on the study particulars.
While she was staying as informed as possible about everything that could help Des with his health, he preferred to stay in the lead and consider his own reaction to new data before bringing her opinions into the equation. She tried to respect that most days, and today was easier than most, since she was having trouble staying awake. He gently but firmly suggested she go get her nap, and she decided to comply without complaint.
While she tried to stay awake until he came to join her, the day's travel and a million other details caught up with her. Her intended short power nap turned into a deep sleep. Thomas and Marcus's guest room, tucked into the back corner of their old farm house, was designed to be a nap heaven. Her sleep was more restful than any she'd had in a while, except for the nights when Des had given her those thorough sexual workouts.
She'd wondered if that was partly why he'd done it. Even when she was watching out for him, he was watching out for her, too. It was nice.
She had little memory of anything over the next couple hours except the ceiling fan turning slowly over the open canopy of the wood-framed queen-sized bed and the sun fading away over the fields behind the house. The window allowed the bed to be bathed in a square of natural light. Eventually, she felt Des's arms around her, his lips against her cheek. She nestled into the curve of his body with a sound of contentment and drifted. Despite her earlier desires, she was deep in dreamland, and it was nice just to spin there with him.
When she finally stirred, the clock on the bedside said ten p.m. She'd anticipated waking up an hour ago and sharing a glass of wine with Thomas and Marcus on the front porch. The time startled her enough she would have shot out of bed like a guilty Goldilocks, but Des's arms were around her. She realized it was the quiet whisper of her name that had brought her out of sleep. "Julie. Wake up for me, love."
She pressed her face into his throat, pleased when he cupped both his hands around her skull, stroking her hair. "Want to see something worth seeing?" he asked in that same low voice.
"Are you naked?"
His lips pulled into a smile. "Almost." When she opened her eyes, she saw he was on the top of the covers, stripped down to his jeans. He rose and offered her a hand to help her slide out of the high bed.
As she did, his gaze passed over her, registering strong approval. She'd removed her skirt and blouse and put on one of his snug T-shirts as nightwear so she didn't wrinkle her clothes.
"Nice as this is..." Des put his hands on the hem of the T-shirt and lifted it over her head, revealing her unbound breasts, leaving her standing in her lacy panties. He brought her closer, hand slipping inside the filmy fabric to knead her flesh as he kissed her, a wake-up call that had desire returning in one deliciously slow surge.
When she would have put her arms around him and drawn him back to the bed, he brought her to the window. There was a window seat there with a cushion, an
d he guided her up onto it, putting her hands on the sash and applying pressure, telling her that was where he wanted her to leave her palms. "Look," he ordered.
She glanced out over Thomas and Marcus's back yard, framed by live oaks and pines. It had the backdrop of a field that had once been farmed but now provided a few acres of pastureland for their three cows and two goats. The chickens were in their roost for the night. But those brief impressions weren't what he wanted her to see. It didn't take her more than a blink to find out what he did.
She drew in a breath. She'd told him she'd never watched Marcus and Thomas in a scene. The closest she'd come to it was the night she'd shared a bed with them for her birthday. Then she'd had the pleasure of curling up behind Marcus, daring to trail her fingertips down his back while he took Thomas next to her. She'd told Des she would be too embarrassed to watch them...while they knew she was watching. She assumed they'd be the same way, but apparently they'd figured out something, based on what Des whispered into her ear.
"They know we're here. I thought if you could get the chance to watch them in a way that worked for both of you, you might like it."
"How did you get Marcus to agree?" She swallowed a moan as Des's palms glided over her breasts, light as the touch of air.
"Sometime in the future, when I'm doing a scene with you, he and Thomas want to watch. It will be at a distance like this."
"He...they wanted to do that?"
"You sound surprised." He bit her neck. "They may be gay, but the three of you have a special relationship. I think they like the idea of you and all your curves bound up..." His fingers trailed up her bare spine then over her shoulder, around it, so he could press all five digits into the curve of her left breast, take possession of it. She leaned back into him, breath accelerating as he stroked the nipple, caressed the flesh around it. "Deal?"
"If I say no?"
