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“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. We be smart and walk away now. Save us both the risk of getting attached and then getting our guts handed to us when she walks away.”
Jace groaned and turned around. He was already knee-deep in attachment. “Or?”
Andre leaned forward, his expression weary. “Or both of us spend the next two months showing her what she’s going to be missing if she goes through with the marriage. Give her a chance to make that decision with her eyes wide open. And accept that we’ll probably be sending her a goddamned blender as a wedding gift at the end of the process anyway.”
Well, didn’t each of those options sound like a frolic in the fucking flowers. Kick in the face now or kick in the balls later? Whichever path he chose, Jace knew Evan would leave at the end of it. It’s not like he and Andre could offer her anything permanent even if she decided to renege on her engagement. There was no happily ever after waiting for her here. But at least in the second plan he’d have the chance to touch her again and maybe he could save her from making the marriage mistake like he had.
“I don’t think I can let her go yet,” Jace admitted, the heft of that knowledge like sandbags on his shoulders.
Andre raked his hands through his hair, weariness clear on his face. “That makes two of us then. Aren’t we a couple of masochistic assholes?”
Jace walked over to the couch and perched on the arm of it. “She may not even agree to it. You saw how she reacted when things got too intimate. Maybe this is only a one-weekend, get-the-kink-out deal for her.”
Andre snorted. “That’s like saying a person can cure themselves of being straight or gay. We know she’s submissive. So we need to show her how nice it can be to fully embrace that.”
The plan was starting to take shape in Jace’s head, sounding more tempting as Andre kept talking. But he knew without parameters, they could all end up in a disastrous tangle at the end—hurt feelings, possessiveness, jealousy, guilt. He’d damaged Evan enough the first time around and didn’t want to set her up for more pain. And hell, he needed to keep his own expectations in check. This weekend had proven that Evan could get through the cracks of what he thought was impenetrable armor. They all needed a parachute cord—fine print at the bottom of their agreement—that would allow them to go in with the end in mind.
Jace shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at his closed bedroom door, picturing how content and beautiful Evan had looked when he’d left the room. “At the end of the two months, all of us walk away, no questions asked, no obligation.”Author: Roni Loren
Andre frowned. “I don’t know if we have to spell that out. What if she doesn’t want to leave? What if we don’t? A lot of possibilities could open up.”
Jace stared at Andre as if he’d spoken in tongues. “Possibilities?”
He shrugged. “Maybe the three of us could work out something less . . . time limited.”
“Like be the guys she comes to on weekends to get her off so she can go back home to the good doctor with a smile on her face?” The thought made the muscles in his neck tighten. “I’m not some . . . concubine. Or whatever the dude version of that would be.”
Andre’s eyebrow arched in a way that rose Jace’s hackles. “Oh, right. ’Cause what? Having a woman use you just for sex makes you feel cheap? News flash: That’s your fucking MO, man.”
Jace crossed his arms over his chest, the dig landing squarely. He knew it was his method—no strings, no commitment, just a good time. But something about having only that tiny piece of Evan while knowing she’d be giving everything else to someone else would be too much to tolerate. “Not an option.”
“So maybe we can be the guys she comes to without Dr. Dan in the picture at all. We can offer her a lot more than he can.”
Jace scoffed. Now Andre was venturing into the ridiculous. “You’ve officially lost your mind, amigo. We can’t compete with all that fairy-tale shit—the dream wedding, the famous husband, the picture-perfect two and a half kids I’m sure she wants. All we are is good in bed. Women fuck around with guys like us, but they want forever with guys like him.”
“Don’t give me that pile of bullshit, Jace. You know that both of us are more than capable of giving her what she needs even if it’s not in the traditional way. And don’t pretend this is all about sex. What just happened between the three of us in there felt a hell of a lot different than some carefree fuck.”
“You really have been drinking tainted Kool-Aid. What little picture have you painted in your mind, dude? A cute little house in the suburbs where we live together and share Evan? Maybe give her a kid or two and figure out who the daddy is by the hue of their skin? Have the neighbors call us fags and Evan a whore? Yeah, that sounds like a lovely life for all of us.”
Andre paled a bit. “No, of course that wouldn’t work. And I have no clue where things could lead. But maybe one of us could be with her publicly. No one else has to know what’s going on behind closed doors.”
Jace gave a derisive laugh. “Right. Because God forbid your buddies on the force find out who you really are.”
“That’s not what this is about.”
“Sure it’s not. Those guys know that you share women with your roommate? Or that you like to fuck other dudes sometimes? Cane ’em on occasion?”
Andre winced. “Fuck you, Jace. Don’t be an asshole just because you don’t have the balls to open yourself up to something real for a change.”
Jace’s neck muscles tightened, his blood beginning to roar in his ears. “Last time I checked, learning from an utter failure was smart not chickenshit.”
The muscle in Andre’s jaw ticked, a sure sign his own anger was grabbing hold. “You did not fail your marriage, Jace. Diana used you. She manipulated you so well with that fake-ass victim, please-take-care-of-me act that she still has you thinking you’re the one who wasn’t good enough. She wanted your money and to control you. When those two perks went away, she found someone else to manipulate. End of story. You were just too smitten to see her for what she was—a well-groomed leech. Evan is not Diana.”
Jace ground his teeth, the images of the day he walked in on his wife packing her bags flooding his brain. Jace had been busting his ass trying to get Wicked off the ground, doing his best to prove to Diana—who’d been categorically against the venture—that leaving his father’s business wouldn’t alter the comfortable lifestyle she enjoyed. He’d had his first big day of sales and had come home with an armful of roses and her favorite bottle of wine only to find her preparing to leave. A total fucking blindside.
Without a lick of emotion in her voice, Diana had told him she’d been cheating on him with his former co-worker for months and that she was pregnant.
