Chapter 1

Remind me when you’re sober, Terrie. The words echoed through her head. You won’t play with me, Terrie.

She pushed her fingers restlessly through her red hair as she paced the house. He had left hours before, and she was sober, but she couldn’t find the nerve to pick up that damned phone. She was terrified.

You think I’m bad, her dead husband’s sneering voice echoed around her. I should give you a taste of Jesse, Terrie. Let him share you a time or two with his buddies. Maybe then you would appreciate me more. She shuddered. She appreciated Thomas more dead.

She shook her head as she moved into the small kitchen. She was free of one Wyman and now looking at another. Was she insane? And what was worse, she was looking at Jesse. The same Jesse who had fucked her best friend’s daughter. The same Jesse who had been her friend for the last three years. She shuddered as the thought repeated itself. She had to be crazy.

Jesse was part of a very select group of men. Tess, Ella’s daughter was married to one of them: Cole, Jesse’s best friend. Ella had walked into her ex-husband’s home to find her daughter held between Jesse and Cole in the final throes of an intense ménage.

Terrie had known for years that Jesse was part of this group. There were eight of them. Intensely dominate, charismatic men whose lusts knew few bounds. One of their greater demands was the ménage. The complete surrender and submission of their lovers to the pleasures they could bring them.

Ella, it seemed, had finally given in as well. Tess’s mother had been outraged, furious when she thought Jesse was actually his twin, James, fucking her daughter. She had nearly driven herself crazy with the pain. Loving one of those men was hell. Terrie knew this well.

Thankfully, James had grown tired of the wait and went after Ella in a way that left her little desire to fight him. Sax had been James’s choice for the final sexual obstacle in his path with Ella.

Terrie sighed bleakly. First Tess and now Ella. The two people who meant the most to her had stepped into a relationship that inhabited only Terrie’s darkest, most lust-filled dreams. The very thing that had driven her from accepting Jesse’s attentions years before in favor of what she saw as the safer brother.

Terrie moved from the kitchen to the back deck, sitting in the chair swing as she stared out into the slowly darkening evening. Her body was on fire. She knew what Jesse was. Knew his desires and what he liked. She couldn’t help but know. Thomas had been quite explicit in his description of them.

She curled her legs beneath her as the chair swayed softly with her weight. The soothing rhythm normally eased her stress, but tonight it seemed to only provoke it. The soft back and forth sway made her cunt clench with the thought of Jesse moving between her thighs, his cock thrusting into her hungry pussy with the same slow, steady movement.

She had sworn she would never allow herself to be shared, to be used by the man she loved. She remembered when Thomas first gleefully announced his brother’s preferences as Jesse sat at their dinner table. Not that Terrie hadn’t already been aware of them.

Terrie had been mortified by his drunken announcement, and more than shocked as Jesse sat back in his chair with that sardonic twist to his mouth and asked Thomas if he was trying to scare Terrie, or convince her to join in. It was then she learned that Thomas, too, had been part of the lifestyle Jesse enjoyed. Until he had married her.

She sighed wearily. Reliving the mistake her marriage had been wasn’t going to help her. Jesse was her problem now, not Thomas. And Jesse and his brother were like night and day. Of course, she had known that when she married Thomas. It was her fault. She had married what she considered a safer alternative. And had learned better, nearly at the expense of her sanity.

But none of that solved her present problem. That problem being Jesse Wyman and his incredible stubbornness. Call him when she sobered up. She snorted. She hadn’t been that drunk. She wasn’t so stupid she didn’t know Sax was joining Ella and James on their wedding night, either. Ella had confided that piece of news to her already.

God. Could she do it? Her pussy pulsed at the thought but all her previous beliefs screamed out in rejection of the idea. She knew Jesse would never go to another woman. Terrie had been with Ella when Tess imparted that information. The men wanted no one else. What they wanted was to see the women experience the pleasure of two men worshipping their bodies, glorying in their arousal.

Tess was more than happy with her marriage to Cole. Terrie’s hands clenched in jealousy as she thought of the other woman. How many times had Jesse been in Tess’s bed in the past year? How many times had he fucked her as Terrie lay aroused, dreaming of his touch. Touching herself because Jesse hadn’t been there to touch her.

God, she was demented. She had lost any claim to sanity. Or had she?

She groaned at the futility of her own argument. It didn’t matter, because fact was fact. There was no way in hell she could ask Jesse to fuck her with another man. There was no way she could seduce him…

So you’re Jesse’s lady. One of the men at the wedding had said as he had approached her. I can see why he’s dropped out of circulation now.

Jesse had moved in then, steering her away from the grinning blonde who watched her with wicked green eyes. What had his name been? She frowned as she tried to remember. Lucian. Wasn’t it Lucian? He didn’t work at Delacourte’s, she knew. Jesse had mentioned something about computers.

She snapped her fingers. Lucian Conover. He designed some kind of weird computer programs for the government, if she remembered correctly. Surely Jesse hadn’t already approached someone? What did they do, sit around with their beers and discuss who would fuck their women?

Her face flushed. Good God, what the hell was she getting herself into? Couldn’t he just fuck her? Would she settle for just being fucked?

“Dammit.” She jumped from the chair and moved quickly to the phone just inside the house. Jerking it off the base she quickly punched in Jesse’s number.

“Yes, Terrie.” His voice was dark, smooth, like rich chocolate. She had an addiction for chocolate.

“Did you ask Lucian Conover to help you fuck me?” she asked him point blank. Beating around the bush had never been her strong suit.

Silence met her abrupt question. A long, drawn out silence that made her begin to wonder if he had hung the phone up on her.

“Jesse?” Her voice was sharp, but her knees weakened.

“No,” he finally answered abruptly. “Not exactly. Are you sober now?”

There was a shade of worry in his tone now.

“Very much so,” she snarled, thinking he was lucky she couldn’t throw something at him. “How would you like it, Jesse, if I approached one of my girlfriends to help me fuck you?”

Another silence. “Which one?” Was that curiosity in his voice? She almost rapped the phone against the table in irritation.

“You’re a menace,” she accused him heatedly. “And I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to fuck you at all, Jesse. Actually, Mr. Conover seemed rather interested.” She checked her nails carefully as she considered the possibilities. “Maybe he’s not into the sharing deal after all?”

Jesse cleared his throat. “Terrie, I wouldn’t continue this way, if I were you.”

“I bet he’s hung, too,” she said with apparent interest. “I hear he’s quite good in bed. Maybe I’ll find out. Good night, Jesse, and kiss my ass.”

She disconnected abruptly. Damn him. She knew he had talked to Conover. He must have. She gritted her teeth furiously. Trojans. They were Trojans, all right. Trojan headaches.

The phone rang with a harsh, shrill note. Terrie jerked at the sound before picking it up and glanced at the caller display knowingly.

“Yes, Jesse?” she greeted him sweetly.

“I’ll do more than kiss your ass, Terrie,” he promised, his voice dark, arousing. “You should know better than to dare me, baby.”

She felt a nervous shiver of anticipation work over her body. Her thighs clenched, the liquid heat of her vagina spilling from the lips of her cunt at the sound of his dark, deep voice. It rasped over the line, stroking her senses with erotic purpose.

“Get a life,” she snorted. “I wasn’t daring you, Jesse, I was merely making a statement of intent.”

Silence sizzled over the line.

“You think you’re so brave,” he said, his voice gentle. So gentle, so filled with obvious affection, that she felt her throat tighten with emotion.

He could do that to her so easily. Have her furious, ready to flay him alive, then turn so soft, so incredibly tender she wanted to melt into a puddle of arousal at his feet.

“I am brave,” she reminded him, determined she wouldn’t be swayed this time.

She heard his disbelieving snort, as though he were trying to hide his disbelief.

“We’ll see,” he laughed gently. “Don’t worry, baby. I won’t press you on this. I want you, but I won’t take something from you that you don’t want to give. You’re safe.”

She frowned, biting her lips as she heard the regret in his voice. It was so like Jesse. The thought speared through her mind. Her heart. He was always so careful to be certain no one was hurt; that he gave rather than took from anyone. Would he pretend to want her to keep from hurting her? Or had he pretended he didn’t want her to save her from something he felt she couldn’t handle? With Jesse, it could have been either.

“You don’t want me.” She fought the bitterness that closed her throat. She was terrified that was her answer.

“Terrie, I’m dying to fuck you,” he finally sighed. “I want you so damned bad my cock is hard enough to hammer nails. But I don’t want you hurt. Not ever again, baby. And I’m afraid what I need would hurt you. Go to bed, baby. Don’t worry about this. I promise, I still love you.”

His abrupt about face had tears stinging her eyes. He wanted her. She knew he did. But she would be damned if she would beg.

“You know, Jesse, there are times you aren’t fit to kill,” she snapped. “What makes you think I need your protection?”

“Terrie…”

“You go to bed, Jesse. See if you can sleep with that hard-on driving you crazy. And while you do, just remember. I offered. I won’t do so again. And I still love you, too.” And she realized in that moment just how much she did love Jesse.

She hung the phone up quickly. When it rang moments later, she watched it with narrow-eyed intent. She was a woman, not a child, and Jesse’s insistence on treating her with kid gloves was getting on her nerves. It was time to show him…

She smiled slowly. Oh yes, it was definitely time to show him that he wasn’t the only one who knew how to seduce. She could play the game just as well, and he was about to learn that lesson quite quickly.