The Engagement Gift Read online

  “Aww. That’s cute how you act all innocent.”

  “It’s not an act.”

  She parked her hands on her hips. “Studies have shown that threesomes work best when the third party is someone you all know and trust.”

  The notion was a gong banging, waking me up.

  I blinked. Swallowed. My brain went into overdrive.

  My mind supplied the image. The man who’d been nameless, faceless, in my threesome fantasies suddenly became flesh and blood.

  He became my fiancé’s best friend.

  My pulse soared, and my skin tingled. What if Jake was the other man in my dirty dreams?

  Would that work? Could that work? What would it do to their friendship if things went haywire?

  Kate smirked and twirled her index finger in a circle. “I see the spreadsheet columns in your mind adding up.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t speak spreadsheet.” It came out robotically because I was still processing that . . . sum of the columns. That specific sum of the parts.

  Had the nameless, faceless man been in front of me all along?

  “But I do,” Kate said. “And I can tell the sum of you plus Finn plus Jake is looking pretty damn good.”

  I grabbed her arm, whispering, “They’re best friends. Would that be weird? For them?”

  Kate’s eyes glinted. “I don’t know. I guess that’s what you’d have to find out. But I don’t think it’d be awkward for them if it’s what Finn wants for you. And I bet it’s what he wants for you.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  “Because Finn is obsessed with your pleasure.” She spun on her heel, tipping her head toward the club. “Want to go?”

  “Sure,” I said absently because my mind was absolutely elsewhere.

  As we wove our way through the casino, soaking in the glamour, the glitz, and the sin, I let myself imagine more specifics than I’d ever imagined before.

  I pictured two men I knew—two men who’d take me to the moon and back. One I loved madly and one I knew quite well, indeed.

  The idea was more tantalizing than I’d ever imagined.

  What a strange and filthy new place my mind was.

  And everything felt more possible than it did before we got off to the Penn Badgley lookalike.

  * * *

  The line for Edge was long, but Finn called me over to where he stood by the door. The owner, another one of his cousins, let us in. We thanked Brent then headed for the bar, ordering mojitos.

  Seconds later, Nina joined us, sporting the new red glasses.

  I gave her a thumbs up. “See? I told you. Hot.”

  The brunette struck a pose, then whispered for my ears only, “Do they almost make me look like I know what I’m doing when it comes to men and dating?”

  I laughed. “You don’t look at all like the innocent you are. There. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  She wiggled her eyebrows. “Yes. Now, I need a gin and tonic.”

  “Then, you shall have one.”

  We added to the order, and when the drinks arrived, I took the first swallow of my cocktail then tugged Finn closer. I was ready to be in his orbit. “I know how you love mojitos. Taste it on me.”

  He obliged, claiming my lips, sucking on my tongue.

  “Don’t let us interrupt anything.” Jake must have just shown up, and his voice thrummed through me, my pulse spiking.

  Had his voice always been this sexy?

  I broke the kiss, feeling a sliver of guilt. I should be arrested for fantasizing about my almost-husband’s best friend. But truthfully, I knew myself, knew my mind. The fantasies weren’t about Jake—they were about me. About Finn and me, and about our love life.

  I’d never entertained dirty dreams of fucking other men.

  I didn’t even think of Jake that way after Kate had planted the seed.

  I only pictured the three of us—or really, the two men servicing me.

  All my dreams were of us together. Finn, me, and another man.

  I tried my best to table those thoughts as Adam arrived.

  “At last, the party can start. I am here,” he said, arms held out wide, like arriving royalty.

  “Yes, yes. We wouldn’t deign to start without you,” Nina deadpanned.

  “Good answer,” he said with a wink.

  “The only answer,” she said.

  Adam snagged a whiskey and the six of us toasted to the coming weekend and caught up on work, while I kept my mind on the moment, not on after-dark options.

  It worked for a while, and soon Jake ordered another round for all of us. We all seemed to flow in and out of each other’s conversations—Adam and Nina were wrapped up in a conversation about the best new podcasts on science and travel, with Kate and Finn weighing in, while I took the lead when the talk turned to sports.

  As I knocked back more of the drink, Finn banded an arm around my waist possessively. He dipped his face to my neck, kissing me. A groan seemed to rumble up his chest as I turned to face him.

  He sealed his mouth to mine, hard and rough in front of our friends, something he’d done countless times before.

  But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was claiming me. I wasn’t sure if his roughness meant something or nothing.

  When he broke the kiss, I arched a brow. “Are you marking me?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t have to mark you to know you’re mine.”

  That answered my question; he wasn’t marking me. And it reconfirmed that his faith in us as a forever thing was so damn strong, he didn’t have to claim me.

  He’d already done so for all intents and purposes.

  I grabbed his hand and tugged him to the dance floor, eager to feel that sultry freedom.

  We joined the sea of beautiful people on the dance floor. Time to get lost in the music, to let it move through me.

  Finn danced smoothly. His hips swayed side to side as he brought me close, my ass against his pelvis. He was subtle, moving in a long, indulgent kind of rhythm, and I was even more aroused in seconds.

  That was when I took the next step.

  My eyes wandered, roaming the club, picturing male bodies, moving them like chess pieces around my sexual fantasy board. A knight here, a bishop there.

  None got me closer to what I’d envisioned earlier until my gaze drifted to the bar.

  To our crew of friends.

  Jake’s crooked grin had spread on his face as he chatted with them, oblivious to us. Stubble lined his jaw, and I wondered briefly what that faint trace of a beard would feel like on my breasts, my belly, my thighs.

  Yes, he was the third person.

  It had to be him.

  I shivered, and Finn gripped my waist tighter, yanking my body closer. “You’re watching our friends,” he whispered roughly in my ear.

  I swallowed, and worried briefly that I’d been caught stealing.

  But nothing in his voice suggested anger. Everything in it spoke of desire, underlined by that same confidence he possessed when he’d talked about marking me, about not needing to. Perhaps the reason he wasn’t jealous was that he knew who I went home to.

  Who I’d always go home to.

  “Yes, I’m watching them,” I said, admitting the barest of truths. A start.

  “And what are you thinking?”

  “How pretty they all are,” I said, grinning as I glanced back at him.

  “Yes, they’re all so very pretty,” he said, joking.

  Kate looked over at us, and her eyes locked with mine. They seemed to say something. Something like I know what you want.

  A few seconds later, Jake pulled his gaze away from the others. His dark eyes locked with . . . mine?

  I startled. Did they really, or did I imagine it?

  My breath caught in my throat, and Finn noticed, because he dusted his lips up my neck to my ear. “You like when people watch us.”

  It was a statement, clear and commanding. He knew the answer.

  “Y
es,” I said, and a small knot of worry in me loosened as we danced closer to the secret wish inside me. “Don’t you?”

  He nodded against my neck, his hands circling my waist tighter. “Love it. Love it so damn much, because I know what we have.”

  “What do we have?”

  “Love, trust, faith,” he whispered, and the words were charged with sensuality, as if trust were a black lace garter and faith were our king-size bed.

  Maybe they were one and the same.

  “We do have that. Does that turn you on?” I asked.

  “It does, because I know nothing will change it,” he said, and those words were iron, they were stone.

  He didn’t need to keep me all to himself, because he knew I belonged to him. But would he share me?

  I danced against him, raising my arms into the air, my body moving like water. “What if someone did watch us?” I asked, taking a chance, another small step out of the realm of imagination.

  “I bet you’d like it. Just like you did the other night.”

  His comment was so nonchalant, so casual that it caught me off guard. Were we talking hypothetically or specifically? About Jake or about the guy from the store? Or anyone? I didn’t know, but I had to find out. Adam and Nina had stepped away to say hi to someone. This was my chance to take one more step toward my fantasy.

  “I like when people see how hot we are for each other,” I ventured, my gaze drifting again to Jake and Kate. “Even people we know.”

  Finn grazed his hand down my belly. “I see where you’re looking, baby. And I bet you’d love it if he saw what you did to my cock.”

  He.

  We were talking about the man we knew. We weren’t talking about the man from the store any longer.

  My skin turned electric, and pleasure popped inside me like a drug, an intoxicating drug that flooded my veins with endorphins.

  I rubbed against his erection. “What do I do to it?”

  “You make me so fucking hard when you tell me your fantasies. I want to make them all come true.” He ran his hands down my thighs. “All of them, Lily. Every damn one.”

  We were close, so close. “Every one?” I asked nervously.

  “Every one. Like how aroused you get when people watch us. You love it because you’re so damn sexual and so fucking mine.”

  “I am yours. You know that, right?”

  “I damn well fucking know it.” He growled. “And you better, too.”

  “I do. I absolutely do.” I ran my hands behind me, across his firm stomach, tracing the outline of his hard abs, then down to his belt and lower. “What if I slipped my hand into your pants here? Would you like that? Would that turn you on knowing someone’s watching?”

  I looked over once more to the group. They were engrossed in each other, but it had to be clear where I was looking.

  It had to be clear where we were going.

  “Yes. Yes, it would. So, tell me, baby. Tell me what we’re doing right now in your fantasies.” His voice was urgent, desperate, like he had to know to survive this night.

  Love, trust, faith.

  This was it. This was the moment to test.

  “He’s watching us undress.” I emphasized the pronoun, just as Finn had.

  My fiancé’s reaction was instant. He hissed, slamming my ass against his hard cock. “And does that make you wet?” The question oozed sexual need.

  We might not be naming Jake, but it had to be apparent who we were bringing into our game.

  “So wet,” I answered, one hundred percent honest.

  “Tell me what he’s watching us do,” Finn said gruffly, urging me on.

  “He’s watching you peel off my dress then fondle my breasts.”

  He drew a sharp breath, groaning. “I bet he’s turned on when he sees your perfect tits, sees how hard your rosy little nipples get.”

  “He loves it,” I gasped, and I was already ridiculously aroused, soaking my panties. “He’s getting hard watching you yank off my panties, spread me out on the bed, and bury your face between my legs.”

  Holy shit, I wasn’t just going there. I was diving into the deep end, getting off on the idea of his best friend watching us.

  And judging from Finn’s erection, like steel against my ass, and his groans, hot and hard in my ear, he loved every second of it too.

  “Bet you’d like to see him take his dick out, stroke it, even, as I eat your pussy. Bet that’d make you come all over my face.”

  I was burning up. My skin was on fire. The image was so erotic, so deliciously filthy that I’d need fifty cold showers to get it out of my head.

  Not that I wanted it gone.

  “I’d come so hard,” I murmured, my breath stuttering. “And you wouldn’t even wait for me to stop coming. You’d flip me over, put me on my hands and knees, and drive into me.”

  “And you’d take his cock in your perfect mouth.”

  And now he was going there, too. All the way there. Nothing held back. We were doing it. We were bringing another person into our bedroom in every way but that final step.

  Pleasure in me coiled, tightening, and I swore I was going to come on the dance floor. I spun around, grabbed his hand, and marched him to the restroom, shutting it, locking it, and telling him to take out his cock.

  “With pleasure.”

  He unzipped his jeans, and I drew him into my mouth, sucking him deep. I wasted no time with flicks or swirls. I needed all of his cock, and I needed it now.

  Mercilessly, he fucked my mouth, cursing and groaning like he’d never been sucked so good before.

  He couldn’t speak. Could only moan and grunt, it seemed.

  But soon his groans turned into words again. “I could fuck your mouth and he’d walk in and see the way you need something between your legs so badly. He’d get behind you, slide his hands around your waist, and finger your pussy as I fucked your mouth. Would you like that?”

  Between my legs, I felt heavy, aching with desire. I nodded my answer. My only answer. I wouldn’t like it—I’d love it.

  “Or maybe he’d play with your ass while you sucked me off.”

  I moaned around his dick at that image. Lust shot down my spine then shook me to my core when he thrust his dick in my mouth till I gagged a little. He didn’t pull it out. He made me adjust to the depth, and I did, since I’d learned how to take it all the way. Learned from him, from how he liked it.

  “Bet you’d love that. Bet you’d come so fucking hard like that.”

  I felt like I could come right now, even with his cock so deep in my throat. I could come now, and then again, and then I’d want another. I needed this fantasy desperately. Needed it to be real.

  “Or,” he said, his hands curling around my head as he pumped his dick between my lips, “I could fuck your pussy while he fucked your ass.”

  Pleasure tore through me, and I craved relief. Shoving a hand between my legs, I stroked and rubbed as Finn unleashed his orgasm in my mouth, and I took myself over the edge.

  Never had I needed to come more than in that moment.

  My orgasm swept over me as I swallowed his.

  When he tugged me up and looked me in the eyes, he ran the backs of his fingers against my cheek, such a gentle, tender gesture. “Tell me you want that.”

  “I want that,” I said, and the weight lifted. I felt invigorated, alive, all my nerve endings buzzing. “I want you to give that to me.”

  He kissed my forehead. “I will, baby. I will.”

  6

  Finn

  Some things in life were hard. Getting over the loss of someone you loved. Making a half-court shot in basketball. And winning a case when the evidence was overwhelmingly against your client.

  And some were easy.

  Surprisingly so.

  Pulling your best friend aside in the casino at the Luxe. Asking him to play a round of slots. Feeding the machine some tokens and asking, “How would you feel about a threesome with Lily and me?”

  He
shot me a look like I was crazy. “Dude, I am not touching you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “No shit, asshole. There will be no sword crossing, accidental or purposeful.”

  “Amen to that.”

  I smacked his arm. “This isn’t about me. It’s about her. The point is to worship her. To give her a fantasy. The focus would be on her and only her. To make her feel like a queen getting serviced by two kings in the bedroom.”

  He scratched his jaw, took a deep breath, and exhaled. “Let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly. You’re asking me to join you and your fiancée in a devil’s threesome.” He made a hook ’em sign with his hand like he was at an 80s rock concert.

  “Yes.”

  “And that means you want me to fuck your fiancée?” he asked, deliberately blunt, I could tell. Putting it in no uncertain terms.

  When he worded it that way, I bristled. I clenched my jaw. Jealousy flamed in me, but then seconds later, it died down. I was possessive of Lily, but what I wanted all to myself was what I knew I had—her heart, her soul.

  They were never in question, so I didn’t need to be jealous.

  And I wanted her to have all her dirty desires come true.

  “She wants us both at the same time,” I said. “Do you want her?”

  He laughed like I’d said the dumbest thing. “You’re marrying a babe. She’s also an amazing girl. If she wants this, I’d much rather you ask me than find someone online. And, truth be told, if you’d done this with a stranger, I think I’d be really offended. So I suppose now that you’ve offered, you’re stuck with me and my ten-inch dick. But she definitely wants it?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Your dick is not ten inches.”

  “Have you measured it?”

  “No, and I never will, but I’m confident it’s not ten inches.” I took a beat. “And to answer your other question, yes, she does. Look, I can ask her to join us right now and work out the details.”

  Jake held out his hands wide. “If it’s ladies’ night, the lady ought to be having a say.”

  I texted her, and a few minutes later she joined us, standing by my side. She looked guilty, but in a cute way, like she’d been caught taking money from my wallet to buy me a gift.

  She was the only gift I ever wanted.