right?”
“Fine, but we’re still doing lunch tomorrow, right? We need to talk about the ‘Jo’ situation and how to fix it, before I go stark raving mad. He keeps trying to feel me up.”
“I hear you,” I agreed, feeling a twinge of guilt. “There’s bound to be a way to fix it, and I won’t rest until we find it. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks, Jackie,” Remy said, relief in her voice. “It’s good to have someone on my side who isn’t in my head and interested in seeing me naked.”
I laughed. “I’ll see you at lunch, then.”
“Later.”
Life had been pretty good in the week that we’d been back from Egypt. Sure, I’d lost my job, but it was due to excessive unexcused absences. Julianna had accused me of hiding out to recover from tons of plastic surgery, and I couldn’t refute her claims. Not looking the way I did.
Besides, the truth was much, much weirder than anything she could have come up with.
I’d been sent packing with my last paycheck. I hadn’t made it two feet out the door before I’d gotten a call from a local university, asking if I was still working at the museum. A position had opened up in their archaeology department, if I was interested.
Was I ever!
“Did I just hear the phone?” Zane’s head poked out from the bathroom door, his black hair still dripping from the shower. One of my purple bath towels hung low on his hips, and he stifled a yawn.
“You did,” I agreed, moving toward him. That towel hung deliciously low, and I was irresistibly drawn to it. That was the kind of girl I was now, after all. I pulled it aside and slid my hand over his flesh, leaning in for a kiss. “Room in that shower for two?”
His wet hands slid over my body, resting on my ass. “Who says we have to get back in the shower?”
Then the doorbell rang. Damn!
“Don’t answer it,” he said, pressing kisses along my jawline. “Let’s hit the floor, and I’ll show you where that third kiss goes.”
A quiver of desire shot through me.
The doorbell rang again, and I sighed. “That might be Noah,” I said, sliding away from him playfully.
He gave me an irritated look and pulled the towel back around his waist. “All the more reason not to answer it.”
I ignored his snide comment and headed for the door, unlocking it.
Noah stood in the doorway in a freshly pressed suit. He smiled at me, holding up two coffees and a bag of doughnuts. The man knew my weak spots. “Good morning, Jackie. May I come in?”
“Of course,” I said with a smile.
He stepped in past me, stiffening when he saw Zane on my couch, clad in nothing but a towel. “I see you have company.”
“Well, he doesn’t have a place to stay, what with being exiled and all,” I pointed out, a blush rising on my cheeks.
Remy had been right. The constant bickering between the two men was pretty darn irritating, since each one was surprised to see the other at any given time. I scowled as Noah grabbed my chin and tilted my head up to his, searching my eyes for blue.
They were bleached silver, of course. I’m not crazy, and Zane’s damn hot.
“I see you haven’t been missing me much.” There was a rigid set in his tone, and I noticed how blue his eyes were. He’d definitely been missing me.
Zane stretched out on the couch, looking rather pleased with himself. “Maybe you should leave.”
“Maybe you should let Jackie decide on her own,” Noah said in a deadly voice. Then he flicked a glance back to me and my silver eyes. “Though it seems as if you’ve already decided.”
I took the doughnuts from Noah’s hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m a normal, red-blooded succubus who’s trying to repair the hole in her middle. Your turn will come in about two hours.”
Since I’d been wounded, my body had responded by trying to refuel itself more frequently. Like every eight hours. With two very sexy men at my beck and call, though, I wasn’t complaining.
“I don’t like him being here,” Noah said, his teeth gritted. He crossed his arms and glared at Zane, looking like an angry dog defending his territory.
“Goes double for me, Angel Boy.” Zane glowered at him from the couch. “She’s my girl.”
I rolled my eyes. “Will the two of you leave it be? I’m
But both men had gotten their hackles in a rise.
“I think you should decide who you want to be with, Jackie,” Noah said. “Decide which one you want to choose.”
“Yeah, Jackie. Put this loser in his place and let me get to sleep.” Zane got up from the couch and stood next to Noah, glaring at him. His towel threatened to fall from his waist, if not for the hand holding it there.
My hand.
“Choose, Jackie,” they both said.
Good lord-that was like asking someone to pick which hand or leg they liked better.
“I can’t choose. You both annoy me in completely different ways.”
Two sets of astonished eyes focused on me.
“Noah, you’re a bit too stuffy and set in your ways,” I began. “You want me to be obedient, proper, and ladylike.”
“That’s not true,” he began, a scowl darkening his face.
I raised my hand. “I’m not finished. You’re a bit stuffy, but I like you. You’re always there for me when I need you. You’re my rock, and you’re practical and reasonable even when I’m not. I need you in my life.”
Zane’s face had taken on a shuttered look, and he grabbed a cigarette from the nearby table and lit it. “So this is it for us?”
“No. I like you, too, Zane. You’re impetuous and slick, and you make me do crazy things-things that I like doing. You take my breath away.” He smiled. “But I don’t know you, and I can’t trust you.
“Hence, my problem,” I told them. “I simply can’t choose.”
“Well, you have to,” Noah said, his voice unyielding.
“Pick one,” Zane agreed.
Annoyed, I snapped, “Fine! I pick neither of you.”
I shrugged. “If I can’t have both of you, I’ll just have to go with option C: none of the above.”
Two scowls focused on me and I raised my hand, stopping their arguments before they could start. “I’ve actually given this a lot of thought. My new life flows between both of your worlds, so it only makes sense to have both of you in my life, helping me where you can. Your paths will only intersect for a few hours each day, and if you can manage to avoid each other, so much the better. I can’t pick a favorite, and I don’t think you should try to make me choose. We have unusual circumstances, and I believe they call for an unusual solution. So what’s it going to be?”
Zane grinned and winked at me. “You know my answer.”
Noah was silent, then grudgingly said, “I can share.”
“Ditto,” said Zane. “Just not at the same time.”
My eyes glazed over at the thought of being sandwiched between two delicious men. Hmm-if they could come around to the relationship I was proposing, maybe I could get them to come around to that, as well.
A girl’s got to have a goal, right?
AFTERWORD
