Melt Into You (30 page)

THIRTY-ONE

Today was the big day. Evan adjusted her dress for the
umpteenth time and then touched the twist in her hair, making sure everything was still in place. Her heart was pounding so hard it could’ve substituted for the bass in a death metal song.

She’d never liked being in front of a crowd like this. One misstep or wrong line and it’d be splashed all over every gossip website. She’d rehearsed her part in her head, going over and over the words last night.

The man who’d been acting as her handler this morning stepped into her dressing area. “He’s ready for you, Ms. Kennedy.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, smoothing her dress once more. “Thanks, Eric.”

Eric smiled. “You look beautiful. No need to be nervous.”

Yeah, right. The biggest decision she’d ever made in her life, but no need to get the jitters. “Let’s do this.”

He took her arm and led her out of the room and into the hallway. She focused on breathing in and out and not tripping in the completely indulgent heels she’d gotten for the occasion.

Eric eased her around the last corner and into the main area. Daniel smiled at her when he caught sight of her. If he shared her nerves, he didn’t show it. His suit, hair, and expression were as nonplussed as ever. In that moment, she’d never loved him more. This was the right decision.

Eric guided her to the edge of the stage, adeptly keeping her out of the way of the bustling crew and the cameras. “As soon as Daniel welcomes the audience back from commercial, he’ll call you up.”

“Right. Got it.”

“Good luck.” He patted her shoulder and then put his headset back on.

They cued Daniel, and he gave a smile to the camera that was the perfect mix of welcome and reverence for what he was about to discuss. The audience, when this pilot premiered, was going to be eating out of his hand. Women and gay men everywhere were going to want to comfort him—the handsome relationship doctor who was going to announce the dissolution of his engagement on national television. The man who was going to wish the woman who was leaving him all the best and assure everyone that they would stay the closest of friends.

The execs who’d freaked when Evan’s affair had hit the news were now drooling like men at a titty bar over the chance to launch the show with Daniel as the ultimate sympathetic hero. The no-such-thing-as-bad-press cliché had proven golden.

And thank God for that because she’d realized when she’d left Jace and Andre’s apartment that even without them in her life, she couldn’t go on playing a role for Daniel. The last few months had been like biting that Garden of Eden apple. No amount of antidepressants or denial were going to let her “un-feel” what she’d experienced with Jace and Andre. They’d tattooed themselves onto her bones, shifted everything inside her to the point where she’d never again be satisfied with “good enough.”

So even if she had to go through her life alone, at least she’d be authentic about it. Her mother and father had both died too young and continuing to live her own life on autopilot seemed the ultimate insult to the both of them.

Daniel had done decent damage control for her in the press, saying that they’d both figured out that they were better friends than lovers. Ha! If the public only knew how true that was. Daniel still didn’t feel comfortable coming out yet, but she hoped after he grew more secure with the show, he’d take that step as well.

“And now I’d like to welcome my best friend to join me, Ms. Evan Kennedy,” Daniel announced, dragging her from her thoughts.

She took one more deep breath, put on a nervous smile, and walked on stage to publicly break up with the boy she’d plan to marry.

THIRTY-TWO

Jace cracked open the beers and distributed them around
the living room to Andre, Reid, and Grant. Then he handed Brynn a glass of wine. His friends had supposedly come over to celebrate Jace’s birthday, but somehow he’d ended up serving them. Lazy bastards.

“You don’t prefer wine, Grant?” Brynn asked. She had her legs draped over Reid’s lap and was looking downright mellow after two glasses of Chardonnay.

Grant took a pull off the beer and smiled. “I don’t trust these Neanderthals to have anything decent.”

“Well, maybe if you’d bring over some free bottles every once in a while, we would,” Andre said. “Your shit ain’t cheap.”

“And waste it on your untrained palates?” Grant said, somehow managing smug with that twangy accent of his. He looked to Brynn. “Darlin’, if you’d like some, I’ll package up a case next time you and Reid are at The Ranch and send you home with some.”

Reid rubbed circles at the base on Brynn’s spine, an unconscious possessive hold on his woman while she was in a room full of dominant men. Jace couldn’t help but feel hollow at the sight. His own hand filled with nothing but a cold beer bottle.

Two months. Evan had been gone two fucking months. It felt like a century.

He should’ve never let her walk. His instincts had been wrong. Once again.

Reid smiled. “Sounds good. I plan to take Brynn out there next weekend. She’s got a bit of a voyeuristic streak that we haven’t indulged in a while.”

Brynn gasped and smacked Reid on the chest. “Reid!”

Reid chuckled. “You’re in a room full of guys, who, except for Andre, have seen you naked and bound for me. You’ve been on your knees for Jace. I think we’re beyond pretending you’re Ms. Innocent.”

Her cheeks stained pink, and she took a dainty sip from her wine. “Well you could’ve at least left Andre with that illusion. Give me some shred of a chance to have someone think I’m a lady.”

Andre smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been on my knees for Jace, too.”

She tried to maintain her composure, but an indelicate snort escaped. Her gaze went between the two of them. “Damn, that’s hot.”

Jace grinned, the melancholy mood that seemed to chase him no matter where he was lately easing a bit. At least he had good friends. And Andre. Jace didn’t know how he would’ve made it through the last two months without him. Exploring the new relationship between them had been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise depressing reel of film. Though both he and Andre were all too aware, even in the heated moments, that there was a vital component missing. A sense of incompleteness neither could shake.

Reid rolled his eyes. “See. Dirty voyeur. And don’t get any ideas, sugar. I’m not sucking Jace’s dick no matter how much it would turn you on.”

“Word.” Jace shook his head. He was about as attracted to his childhood friend as he was to a swarm of wasps. And though he’d enjoyed the ménage with Brynn, Jace knew it’d been a one-time only deal. Reid and Brynn were kinky as shit, but they were built for one-on-one.

Grant grabbed one of the remaining slices of pizza sitting in the open box on the coffee table. “So when are you two going to come back to my place?”

Jace grabbed a chair from the dining room and straddled it, the little lift in his mood flatlining. The thought of going to The Ranch and dominating any other woman besides Evan made his beer turn bitter in his mouth. “I’ve been busy with the store.”

“Been working on a big case,” Andre mumbled at the same time.

Grant took a bite of pizza, considered them. “She’s doing well, you know. I’ve seen her.”

Jace straightened in his chair like he’d been pinched, his possessive gene going on full alert. “She’s been in L.A. What do you mean you’ve seen her?”

Grant rarely left his business, so when he’d “seen” someone it usually meant he’d seen them naked.

“She came back after she taped that first show. I hired her,” Grant said, his tone as casual as his worn jeans. He tore off another bite of pizza.

Andre looked horrified. “As a submissive?”

Grant smirked. “Look at you two. Like a pack of dogs ready to tear me apart. I’m not that big of an asshole. She needed a place to stay while the media attention died down and while she searched for a new apartment. I gave her a cabin to use in exchange for taking some commercial photos for the winery.”

Jace’s mouth had gone so dry he was surprised he was able to speak. “She’s living at the fucking Ranch?”

The unattached doms would be hunting her like lions stalking a gazelle.

“She handles herself just fine,” Grant assured. “Colby’s been looking out for her.”

“Oh, I just bet he has,” Jace seethed. “I bet he’s been looking quite a lot.”

Reid coughed over what sounded suspiciously like a laugh, drawing Jace’s attention. Brynn seemed to be fighting a smile.

“What are you two grinning about?” Jace snapped.

Reid shrugged. “Someone I know once busted my ass to stop whining about not having the girl I wanted and to go get her already. What are you two idiots doing sitting around for? You’re both obviously gone on the girl.”

“Doesn’t matter if she’s not gone on us,” Andre said, setting his untouched beer on the coffee table. “We left the door open.”

Grant groaned and stood, pulling something from his back pocket. “Damn, you two are a pitiful bunch.” He handed Jace a small square envelope. “Happy birthday. She told me not to give you this until we finished your party, but despite reports otherwise, my sadism only goes so far.”

Jace’s pulse raced. She’d sent them something?

Andre was across the room and at Jace’s side so quick, Jace was sure he’d teleported. “Open it, man.”

Not caring that everyone was there to witness whatever was inside, Jace tore the thing open.

The simple note card inside was filled with her neat script.

Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame;

It is the reflex of our earthly frame,

That takes its meaning from the nobler part,

And translates the language of the heart.

Andre read it aloud, mostly to himself, but everyone could clearly hear it.

Warmth tracked from Jace’s chest, radiating outward and enveloping him. The corners of his mouth lifted into a broad smile.

“Isn’t that a Coleridge poem?” Brynn asked.

“And it’s the quote on the door to Jace’s store. But what the hell’s it supposed to mean?” Andre asked, plucking the card from Jace’s fingers and staring at it. “Now isn’t the time to be all cryptic. Why would she send us this?”

Jace looked up at Andre. “It’s not the
exact
quote, Dre.”

“What do you mean?”

He tapped the card, the little blank space in the last line. “It’s missing the ‘but.’”

THIRTY-THREE

Evan turned up the volume on her car radio and rolled
down the windows, enjoying the bite in the late-autumn air. The drive out to The Ranch after working all day in her studio was a bit of a jaunt, but she was starting to enjoy the empty stretch of road and the decompression it provided at the end of the day.

Soon she’d be back to fighting city traffic daily when she chose between the two apartments she’d found this week. Both options would meet her needs, but she was having trouble deciding, not truly excited about either of them. Probably because each was just empty walls and empty rooms—exciting but terrifying reminders of this new path she’d chosen.

Secretly, she’d hoped that her note to Jace and Andre would open up the door with them again, at least to talk. But Grant had told her he’d given them the card three days ago and neither of them had reached out to her.

She’d been too chicken to go there in person and risk getting shut down. Over the last few months she’d worked hard on getting her shit together. Had gotten herself fully off the antidepressants. She now knew she could survive fine on her own—even if not having Jace and Andre in her life had left this yawning gap inside her like a bad toothache, a dull pain that was never far from her consciousness. But losing them hadn’t sent her into a spiral of depression.

She would never take a day in this world for granted again. The girl she used to be was buried. Reborn.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to subject herself to them sending her away face-to-face.

They’d probably moved on. Maybe it
had
been only a dalliance like she’d told Jace. Maybe once they’d stepped away from the intensity of it all, they’d realized a relationship with her wasn’t what they really wanted. She’d been a mess the last time they’d seen her. How could she blame them for not wanting to get involved with her? They’d known she wasn’t ready to be with them even before she did.

And really, if they’d moved on. If it had only been a tryst. Then better to know that upfront. She wouldn’t go back and change what had happened between the three of them. It had saved her.

The opening bars of one of her favorite love songs drifted from the car’s speakers, and she promptly changed the station to hard rock, kicking up the volume. The guitar-heavy track filled the crammed corners of her mind, shoving away her ruminations. The late-afternoon view along the open highway was too pretty to waste thinking about things she couldn’t change.

She tapped her steering wheel in time with the music and found her foot pressing on the accelerator a little more aggressively. Her hair whipped behind her as the wind blew through the car. Roads like this made her want a sports car. Like Jace’s Viper.

She shook the thought from her head and belted out the chorus to the song, her off-key voice thankfully drowned out by the lead singer’s. The last note left her breathless and in the snippet of silence between tracks, a high whining siren pierced her ears.

Oh, shit
.

She glanced in her rearview mirror and, sure enough, a flashing red light was quickly closing in from behind. She checked her speedometer. Almost eighty. In a sixty-five.

“Dammit!” She eased off the accelerator and made her way to the soft shoulder of the highway. This was going to be an expensive ticket. Just what she needed.

She put the car in park and watched in the rearview as the cop pulled behind her in an unmarked car and turned off the siren. The setting sun reflected off the windshield of the police car, not allowing her to see inside. Damn. She hoped it was a male cop. In her experience, she had no shot of getting out of a ticket when a woman stopped her.

Evan would fight for feminism to the death, but she was not above using a smile and a nice “I’m so sorry, officer” to get out of a ticket. Though, she did draw the line at tears. Callie had used that method once and Evan had almost died from trying not to laugh. Callie had gotten a ticket anyway.

“Keep your hands where I can see them and stay in your car.”

The loudspeaker voice startled her. Hell, she’d only been speeding. Evan kept her face forward and put her hands on the steering wheel as the cop stepped up beside her car. He put his palms on top of the car and leaned down to her half-open window. “Roll down your window, ma’am.”

The silky authority in the voice had every molecule in her body freezing in suspension. She turned toward the window, coming face-to-face with a pair of aviator sunglasses, dark hair, and a smirk she’d know anywhere.

Oh my fucking God
. She tried to say something but a puff of air was all she could manage.

Andre straightened, the hard body outfitted in his full uniform coming into view. “Get out of the car, ma’am. Now.”

Her limbs couldn’t process requests. Her hands stayed cemented around the steering wheel. The moment of hesitation didn’t go over well. Andre yanked her car door open, leaned over her to unhook her seatbelt, then hauled her out of the car with a firm grip on her upper arm. “I said
out
.”

She stumbled, but he held her upright. “I’m sorry. What’s . . . What’s going on, Andre?”

“So disrespectful.” He dragged her around the front of the car to the passenger side, blocking them a bit from the view of the road. “You call me officer or sir, you understand?”

Heat zapped through her like lightning.
Oh
.

He shined a small flashlight in her eyes. “Have you been drinking?”

She winced at the bright light. “No, of course not.”

“So you’re just driving like a fucking maniac because you think you’re too good to follow speed limits?”

His grip on her arm tightened, and he crowded his body against hers, trapping her between him and her car. Her body trembled. She knew what this was. But damn if he wasn’t convincing enough to have a thread of fear lacing through her. “I’m sorry, officer. I wasn’t paying attention. I—”

“Yeah, you know what I think?” he said, his voice low and threatening. “I think that’s exactly your problem. You don’t know how to pay attention. You think a nice expensive speeding ticket is going to fix that?”

She wet her lips, letting herself slide into her own role. “I can’t afford a ticket, Officer. Please, just let me go. I promise I won’t speed anymore.”

“Look at you, you can’t even look me in the eye when you promise that. You think I don’t know you’re lying?” The disgust in his voice dripped off the words. He turned his attention toward the rear of the car. “I don’t think a ticket is going to do shit in changing her attitude. What do you think, Austin?”

She sucked in a breath, but Andre clamped her chin in his hand, not allowing her to turn her head and see Jace.

“Keep your attention on me,” Andre commanded.

“As soon as we take off, she’ll be driving like an Indy racer. I think this one’s used to talking her way out of stuff with that pretty little mouth of hers,” Jace said. “Maybe we should put those lips to better use. I may be able to be convinced to forget about that ticket.”

His voice was like sunshine on chilled skin. She closed her eyes, breathed. They were here. Wanting her. Giving her the fantasy she’d only dared speak aloud once. Showing her with action instead of words how they felt.
Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame
.

“
Hmm
, I may be able to be swayed as well.” Andre’s free hand drifted down her body and then cupped the juncture between her thighs, the heat of his palm searing through the thin material of her skirt. “So, Ms . . .”

“Kennedy,” she gasped.

“Ms. Kennedy, how ’bout we work out some other form of payment?”

Under normal circumstance, she may have thought the moment comical. A silly role-play. But the intensity of his gaze, his tone, his touch had dragged her down from fantasyland and into some elemental place where lines between real and pretend blurred. He wasn’t fucking around. His dominance was as real as the car pressing into her back.

But that didn’t mean she was going to make it easy on either of them. They’d let her believe for all those days since she’d sent the note that they’d given up on her. Her heart had broken every time she’d looked down at her empty voicemail.

They wanted her submission again? Well, they’d have to earn it.

“Go to hell,” she said, trying to wriggle free. “You can’t do this. I’ll report you.”

“Oh, look how cute, Austin. She thinks she has some say on what fucking happens to her.” His laugh was dark and menacing as he shoved his hand beneath her skirt and into her panties. Without any preamble, his fingers plunged into her pussy, her already wet heat bathing his hand. She let out a whimpering cry and pushed at the solid wall of his chest. He didn’t move back an inch.

“Screw you,” she bit out, the sharp sound echoing down the empty highway.

His brown eyes turned savage as he moved his hand out from under her skirt. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her sideways, splaying her stomach down on the hood of her car. Her cheek pressed hard onto the warm metal, and he kicked her legs wide with his booted foot.

The rumble of an oncoming vehicle filled her ears and she tried to jerk upward, but Andre planted a palm between her shoulder blades and pushed her back flat. “Add resisting arrest to your charges, Ms. Kennedy.”

“But . . . a car,” she protested. She’d never forgive herself if Andre got himself in trouble over this.

He grabbed her arms, securing them behind her, and parked himself between her spread legs, his erection hard against her ass. “You think we fucking care? Or are you embarrassed that anyone who passes by will see how bad you’ve been?”

The rumble turned to a roar and an eighteen-wheeler whizzed by them, kicking up some of the dust on the side of the road in its wake. She let go of the breath she’d been holding. “I haven’t been bad.”

Jace stepped into her peripheral vision, but she was afraid to attempt lifting her head. “No fucking remorse. Forget bargaining. Just take her in. Maybe a cell block will do her some good.”

Cuffs snapped around her wrists.

“No!” She squirmed, the metal clinking from her struggle. “No, don’t arrest me.” She softened her tone, attempted to sound placating. “I’m sorry. Just tell me what I need to do.”

Jace grabbed her by the hair, lifting her head at an uncomfortable angle and forcing her to meet his eyes. He was dressed in one of Andre’s black Dallas PD shirts and dark jeans. Tattooed and badass and so fucking sexy it almost wasn’t fair to expect her to resist. No gentleness resided in his face. “You want to play nice now?”

She tried to nod. Couldn’t. “Yes, sir. I’ll do anything.”

White teeth glinted in the rays of the setting sun. “I like anything.” He leaned in closer to her, his grip tightening against her scalp. “Until the sun comes up tomorrow, we
own
you, Ms. Kennedy. Every inch of this sinful body of yours. You be a good girl for us and maybe we can forget any of this ever happened.”

Her body melted against the hood like car wax, his heated words and cocky smile enough to have everything going liquid inside her. Owned. By the two men she couldn’t imagine loving more. “I’m all yours, officers. For as long as you want me.”

Jace closed the distance between them and overtook her mouth in a kiss that told her he’d missed her as much as she’d missed him. His lips and tongue staking claim in a way that words couldn’t. When he pulled back, she was panting. He nipped at her lip. “You know what you can say if you need to, pet.”

She gave him a vixen smile. Nothing they could do to her would coax
Texas
from her lips. For the first time in her life, she needed no training wheels, no safety net, and no fucking safe word. Her trust in these two men had grown to be as natural as breathing. “You won’t hear it. There will never be any other ‘buts’ again, sir.”

The hard glint in his eyes softened for the space between seconds. “Get her in the car, Medina. Time we give that smart mouth of hers something to do.”

Andre pulled her to her feet, checked her cuffs, and then smacked her ass hard. “Move it.”

As she headed toward their vehicle, a black car came into view in the distance, heading in their direction. She picked up her pace. No need for more random strangers looking at her like she was a criminal. Jace opened the back door and Andre put a hand on her head and ducked her into the car. But before she could find a comfortable position with her hands cuffed behind her, Andre leaned inside. “On your stomach. Knees underneath you. Ass up.”

She blinked, looked back toward the car that was getting closer. “What? Here?”

“
Now
, princess. I’m not going to write you an instruction manual.”

Her already hammering heart kicked up to a deafening rhythm in her ears, but she rolled to her side and positioned herself as best she could. Andre grabbed her hips and helped her get her knees beneath her. He reached beneath her dress and ripped off the panties, the material splitting like it had been made of tissue. The nip of the fall air coasted over her slick skin, inspiring another rush of wet heat.

God, would the people in the other car be able to see what was going on when they passed?

The side of her face pressed into the leather of the backseat, her breathing coming out in sharp little pants. The rumble of the oncoming car grew louder and then slowed, the distinct sound of rubber hitting the dirt shoulder nearly sending her into a panic. The car was stopping!