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Declan

The meetings went well but lasted way longer than either he or Tanner was hoping for. By the time they got back to the hotel, he was exhausted and all he wanted to do was order room service, shower, and crawl into bed.

“How about a drink at the bar?” Tanner asked.

“No thanks, man,” Declan said. “I’m beat and just want food and bed. Plus, I want to be fresh for our date with Shelby tomorrow, so I’m just going up to my room.”

Tanner looked around the lobby, over to the bar, and back at Declan. “It’s not a date,” Tanner said.

“Did I call it that?” Declan asked, playing dumb. He knew what he had called it. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but he was hoping that their day together, just the three of them, turned into a date.

“You did,” Tanner said. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up about this girl. She seems nice—maybe too nice for the both of us. What if she doesn’t like to play with two guys at once?” Tanner asked. He could hear the insecurity in his best friend’s voice, and he hated that Tanner felt that way. He used to be one of the most insecure people that Declan had ever known. It was one of the reasons why sharing women worked out so well for both of them. Declan never wanted the responsibility of a relationship and Tanner needed a little nudge in the confidence department.

“Then, we’ll convince her to be into both of us,” Declan said. “We’ve only been turned down once, remember?” he asked.

“Yeah—worst night ever,” Tanner reminded. They were in their last year of college and Declan had convinced Tanner to go out to the local dive bar with him called The Circle. It was a hole in the ground and God, he loved that place. Tanner had spotted a woman dancing in the corner of the bar and convinced Declan that she should be their next prospect. That place with dark, dirty, and loud, and Declan didn’t realize that Tanner was hitting on their Business Law professor until it was too late. The damage was done and even though she had politely turned them both down, even saying that she was flattered, their grades in that class mysteriously dropped from A’s to C’s. When they went in to talk to their professor, and once again apologize for their behavior at the bar, she refused to admit that she was grading them harder than the other students in her class. She told them both to study more and put as much effort into their grades as they had picking up women to share. That’s when things got ugly.

Tanner lost his cool and threatened to go to the Dean and report her for fraternizing with students. It was a big no-no back when they were in school, and she could have gotten in a lot of trouble for even being at that bar. Their professor told them both to get out of her office, even threatening to tell everyone that they shared women, but the joke was on her because that little secret was already out and widely spread around campus. Hell, they were known by the female population for sharing women, and for the most part, women seemed to like it.

“We could have had any woman in that bar that night, but I went and stupidly chose our professor,” Tanner said.

“Wasn’t your fault, man,” Declan assured. “That place was dark, smokey, and loud. There was no way that you could tell that she was our professor. She didn’t even look like herself that night. She was wearing makeup and a leather mini skirt. She was out for a good time, and we caught her red-handed.” They had too. After they left her office that day, their grades mysteriously started to go up again. Declan ended up getting an A in that class and Tanner got a B, probably because he was the one to threaten to go to the Dean about her. But they passed, and that was all that mattered.

“She could have really fucked up our college careers,” Tanner said.

“But she didn’t, and that’s all that matters,” Declan insisted. “Water under the bridge. We just need to put all of that behind us and try to have a good time tomorrow. No more trips down memory lane, man,” he ordered.

“Deal,” Tanner agreed as Declan got onto the elevator to take him up to the top floor. “Hold the elevator,” Tanner said. “I’m going to head up now too. Room service and bed sound just about perfect.”

* * *

Declan woke up early the next day. He was still off schedule from his lingering jet lag, but there was no way that he would roll over and go back to sleep. First, he wanted to get in a workout and check out the hotel’s gym. Then, he planned on a nice hot shower and breakfast before he needed to meet Shelby and Tanner.

“You’re up early,” Shelby said from her doorway as he stepped into the hall. “You don’t sleep in late like Tanner does?” she asked.

“How the hell would you know about Tanner being a late sleeper?” he asked. Visions of Tanner and her in bed together played through his head and he had to admit, he didn’t like it. Their plan was to take her together, or at least try. If Tanner jumped the gun and got her into bed already, Declan was going to beat his ass.

“He told me when I cleaned his room yesterday. We were talking about brain fog in the morning, and I said that I needed a pot of coffee to wake up, but that I got up with the sun. Tanner said that he was a late riser.”

“Oh,” Declan said, suddenly feeling foolish about what he thought was going on with his best friend and Shelby behind his back.

“What? Did you think I was coming from his room or something?” she teased, looking over to Tanner’s door.

“No,” Declan lied. “Just wondering how you knew something so personal about my friend is all.” Yeah, he was digging himself a good-sized hole, but he couldn’t tell her what he really thought, because then, he’d have to admit to their plan.

“Are we still on for today?” Shelby asked, changing the subject.

“Yep,” he agreed. “I’m looking forward to it and Tanner said that he was too. I’m going to hit the gym and grab some breakfast before I shower and get ready for our day. Why are you up so early?” he asked. “Don’t tell me that they needed you to work again. Did Lou call in sick and now they need you to fill in?”

“Um, no,” she said. “I have a feeling that I won’t be filling in for Lou anymore. Apparently, she wasn’t under the weather at all—she was just under our boss.”

“Ouch,” Declan said. “How did you find out?”

“I walked in on the two of them in his office. Lou was doing just fine for herself. The next time Claude asks me to fill in for one of the other women, I have a feeling that I won’t have any trouble telling him no.” Right—she had warned him that she had trouble telling people no, and that had him thinking of all of the things he wanted her to say yes to for him.

“Claude sounds like a real douche,” he said.

“Yeah, I don’t understand how women fall for that. I mean, sleeping with the boss is just deplorable.” Declan looked back at Tanner’s door and smiled. How many times had Declan told Tanner that same thing? He all but begged his business partner not to sleep with the staff and no matter how many times HR had to get involved, Tanner didn’t seem to get the hint. Declan would just have to tell Tanner to keep his mouth shut about his little indiscretions back at home. He didn’t want any issues getting in the way of them getting Shelby between the two of them.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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