Sated (2 page)

“How do you know you’ve never met a werewolf before?”

“Umm…” I tailed off, then looked at Ace, wide-eyed. “You mean—?”

He nodded. “Sure, you’ve met lots of werewolves over the years, Nees. I just didn’t tell you.”

“Why not?” I was indignant. Why would he keep such a thing from me?

“Hey, don’t get snippy, babe. It’s nothing to do with keeping secrets or anything like that. It’s just, well, for one, I didn’t think it was important. People are people—regardless of their ‘otherness’. Secondly, what was I supposed to do? Introduce every person you ever met with their supernatural identity, too? ‘Aneesa, this is Max, he’s a vampire. This is Lexi, she’s a witch. And Doug over there, well he’s just a plain old human being.’”

“Thanks,” I said dryly. “Good to know I’m plain.”

He reached over and squeezed my thigh. “You’re being silly now, sweetheart. I was being sarcastic, as well you know. And you’re far from plain. You’re my brown sugar, remember?”

I told you he had lots of pet names for me. I saw his point about not being able to introduce people and out them at the same time, so I backtracked the conversation a little. “Okay, so in the past, as well as other vampires, I’ve met werewolves and witches. And I didn’t have a clue—so clearly they’re not unlike us, either.”

“Correct. In terms of physical appearance, anyway. Most of the time, werewolves aren’t all that hairy, and I’ve never seen a witch with a single wart, hooked nose or broomstick.”

“Stop it now,” I said, slapping his thigh. The sharp sound reverberated around the interior of the car, and I bit my lip to stop myself expressing the pain I felt in my palm, which was heightened by the fact that Ace hadn’t so much as flinched. “I’m serious. I just want to know what I’m letting myself in for if we go through with it. Is screwing Barton going to be more like screwing you, or a human? Or something completely different?”

Ace shrugged. “I dunno, I’ve never fucked Barton.”

“Last chance, fang boy.” I inserted as much menace into my voice as I was capable of, which admittedly wasn’t much, but he still had to know he was pissing me off.

“All right, all right!” He held his hands up in supplication, then hurriedly put them back on the wheel as I gave him a narrow-eyed stare. “I’ll tell you what I know. But this is all third hand. I haven’t ever had sex with a werewolf.” He paused, presumably waiting for me to slap his thigh again, or something. But I didn’t. I wanted the information, and I wanted it fast as we were nearly at the bar. “From what I’ve heard, it’ll be very similar to having sex with a vampire in terms of stamina. And I’m not aware of any horror stories about werewolves changing during climax or anything like that. Oh, and you’ll need to use a condom, as both pregnancy and STIs are possible with werewolves. The only surprises, I would imagine, will be purely sexual ones.”

I nodded slowly as I absorbed the information. That was good—nothing freaky would happen. Or nothing
bad
freaky, anyway. The good kind of freaky was something I was totally on board with. “Great. Okay. Well that’s all very reassuring. So at least now if I meet the guy and instantly want to rip his clothes off and jump his bones, I’m fully armed with all the pertinent information.”

Now it was Ace’s turn to give a narrow-eyed stare. “Hey, there will be no
jumping,
of bones or otherwise, without me there. Just to be clear, Aneesa, we’re talking about sharing here, not swinging. Or cheating.”

His tone was deadly serious. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I wasn’t scared, exactly, but when Ace went all alpha male on me, I was reminded of how powerful he was. I knew he’d never hurt me—not without my consent, anyway—but he was occasionally possessive. If a guy pestered me, or gave me any unwanted attention, he could warn them off with a single glance.

I just hoped like hell it wouldn’t be the case with Barton. The two of them were friends—though not all that close, apparently, since I’d never met the guy, despite having been Ace’s girlfriend for years. And they’d obviously discussed arrangements before even mentioning anything to me. Everyone was okay with the idea, so there was no reason for any problems to arise.

But put two alpha males in a room with a naked woman, and there was no telling what would happen. Mentally, I crossed my fingers it would all work out. I was so close, so damn close, to sating my insane lust for being the filling in a gorgeous man-sandwich that I couldn’t bear to be disappointed.

I took a deep breath, and reminded myself I was jumping the gun. Yes, all the technicalities had been ironed out. Yes, I was armed with all the information I needed. And yes, I trusted Ace wholeheartedly and knew he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. But there was still a final matter to be cleared up.

What if I wasn’t attracted to Barton? Granted, I was only fucking him, not marrying him, but I’d never been one to have sex for the sake of it. If there was no spark, no sizzle, between me and my potential partner, then what was the point? It’d be perfunctory, a purely physical thing. And I’d grown so used to having amazing sex with my mind, body and soul, that I wasn’t going to settle for anything less now. No way. I’d rather call it quits and go home with my gorgeous boyfriend and give the springs on our bed another heavy workout.

By the time we pulled into the bar’s car park, I was having trouble keeping a lid on my nerves. Ace, of course, knew damn well how I was feeling—my heart was pounding so hard that a human would almost be able to hear it. Sucking in and releasing a couple of deep breaths, I got my most powerful organ involved—my brain. I told myself that this wasn’t important. It was just a drink, just a bit of fun. If it led to something more, fantastic. If it didn’t, we’d walk away. There was nothing to lose.

Unfortunately, as we passed into the building with its low-level music and the stench of beer in the air, my pussy reminded me that we had everything to gain.

Chapter Three

Once we’d crossed the threshold, Ace stepped up beside me and took my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. I flashed him a grateful smile and squeezed back.

“Huh,” he said quietly as we walked further into the room, looking for a space at the bar to stand.

“What? What’s the matter?” I tried to keep the concern out of my tone, but failed miserably.

Pausing, then pulling me closer, Ace pointed across the room. The bar itself was L-shaped. We were parallel to the longer side, and just past the corner was the man that Ace was indicating. “That’s Barton. And I have never known that guy to be early for anything. Ever. Seems he’s just as eager as you.” He chuckled, then pressed a kiss to my hair.

A thrill shot through me—and not just from Ace’s proximity and that sexy chuckle. Even from a distance, I could see that Barton was gorgeous. He was the opposite to Ace in several ways—dark where Ace was fair, beefy where Ace was lithe, and yet he still pushed all my buttons. Visually, at least. It took much more than just looks for a man to float my boat, so I figured it was time to stop gawping and get over there and meet him.

I shrugged, despite knowing that Ace would see right through my feigned indifference. “Maybe he’s changed, Ace. People do that, you know. Come on, let’s get over there before we end up being late.”

Wisely, Ace chose to keep quiet and continued to hold my hand as we approached Barton. Not in a possessive fashion, but more of an I’m-here-babe-you’re-safe kind of way.

Barton swiveled on his barstool as we grew closer, then hopped off it, his hand held out. He gave me a quick smile before greeting Ace. “Ace, mate! How’s it going?” They shook hands, clapped each other on the shoulder, then broke apart.

Immediately, Barton turned to me. “Hey, Aneesa, I’m Barton. It’s great to meet you.” I shook his hand, enjoying the strength and warmth that he emitted. I noted how he was checking me out—in more of a curious than lusty way. I guessed he was trying to be respectful.

I gave a genuine smile. He was just as cute close up as he’d been from across the room. “It’s great to meet you too, Barton…” I tried not to cringe as I tailed off—it was obvious that I’d been about to say something else, but had decided against it. Mainly because the only two options my brain had supplied were ‘I look forward to getting to know you better’ and ‘Ace has told me so much about you.’

The first was cheesy beyond belief and, considering the reasoning behind our meeting, laden with innuendo. If I’d let that phrase come out of my mouth, I think I’d have died of embarrassment on the spot.

The second was simply not true, which is why I hadn’t said it. Until the whole threesome thing had come about, I couldn’t remember Ace ever mentioning Barton. And the questions I’d asked Ace since then didn’t really count as Ace telling me lots about him.

And so the awkward silence hung in the air for several seconds, before Barton recovered. Smiling, he said, “Can I get you a drink, guys? Aneesa?”

“Um, yes please,” I replied, regaining the ability to speak. A double vodka and Coke would have gone down a treat right then, but Ace and I had already agreed we were going to stay sober for this meeting—we needed clear heads to make decisions and to ensure that whatever happened next was influenced only by us, not by alcohol. “I’ll just have a Coke, please.”

“Of course. Ace?”

“The same, please.”

With a quick nod, Barton turned back to the bar and attempted to get the attention of a member of staff. I took the opportunity to study Barton in greater detail without him knowing. Quite honestly, I really enjoyed what I saw. He was a tad taller than Ace, making him maybe three inches over six feet. Tight—but not obscenely so—jeans covered what looked like a very grabbable, bitable backside and thick thighs that were in perfect proportion with the rest of him. A narrow waist flared out to wide shoulders, encased in a short-sleeved T-shirt which showed off his physique. His arms, of course, were muscular, and looked as though even if he hadn’t been a werewolf, that he could throw me around in the bedroom.
Mmm…

He also had a couple of tattoos peeking out of his sleeves, but I couldn’t see them properly. Providing things worked out, I’d have the opportunity to study his ink in great detail later. That and the rest of his no doubt delectable body.

Having stared for longer than was polite, even though he was facing the other way, I shifted my attention to Ace, who was watching me with an amused expression on his face.

“You like?” he mouthed.

I waggled my eyebrows theatrically in response, stopping suddenly as Barton turned to us, holding our drinks. We both took the ice-cold glasses and murmured our thanks.

“So,” Barton said, snagging his own drink, “shall we go and grab a booth?”

“Absolutely,” Ace replied, “lead the way, mate.”

As we followed Barton past a group of guys at the pool table, I tried to get my brain in gear for some conversation. Although I hadn’t said it out loud, I
did
want to get to know him better before I considered getting naked and horizontal with him, so I needed to figure out what to say. I couldn’t rely on Ace and Barton to get the chatter going—they might fall into reminiscing about times gone by, or talking about sports or people I didn’t know.

As we reached an empty booth right in the corner, Ace stood aside and let me sit down first. I slid along the vinyl seat, and he moved in beside me. Barton sat opposite us, his bulk filling a good chunk of the space on his side of the table.

Damn, he really was handsome. I took a long swallow of my drink, using the time to check him out some more. His chin-length dark hair looked soft, strokeable—ideal for tangling one’s fingers into. And maybe tugging. His eyes were brown, with laughter lines at the corners, which were always a positive note in my book. If someone laughed a lot, then they were either fun, or
had
a lot of fun. Both were good with me. His nose was long, not over-large, and had been broken, likely more than once. Finally, his mouth—possibly the best part of him. That I could see, anyway. Sinful, tempting lips, straight white teeth, and a dimple in his left cheek.

Putting my glass down on the table, I crunched on an ice cube, preparing to ask my first question to get the conversational ball rolling. Barton beat me to it.

“So, Aneesa, how long have you been fantasizing about fucking two men at once?”

Chapter Four

As I choked on the ice cube, Ace’s hand shot out and he thumped my back, preventing the scene from getting too messy.

When I finally got a hold of myself and had gulped down a load of Coke to soothe my burning throat, I glanced up to see an utterly chagrined expression on Barton’s face.

“Sorry,” he said, his hands spread in supplication. “Didn’t mean to, uh, shock you like that. Guess I’m just direct.” He lowered his voice a little, though there was no one close by. “I’m so used to being around other werewolves who are, shall we say, feral, that I forget humans are distinctly more subtle, particularly when it comes to conversations of this kind.”

“It’s okay,” I replied, giving him a tight smile. He was lucky he was cute—I was sure he got away with an awful lot because of his extraordinary looks. God knows Ace did—and not just with me. “I like direct, actually. I just wasn’t expecting it. But now I am, I’m sure we’ll be just fine.”

“Good, good.” Barton nodded, then downed the rest of his drink. “Now I’ve thoroughly shown myself up, I’m going to excuse myself for a couple of minutes and go to the bar. You guys want anything?”

Ace and I shook our heads, and Barton gave us both an apologetic grin as he slid out of the booth and strode away. I watched him for a couple of minutes, hoping that he wasn’t just being polite—saying he was going to the bar when in actual fact he was going to make a run for it. Satisfied he was staying put, I returned my attention to Ace, who wore an expectant expression.

“Well?” he prompted.

Of course, he already knew I was attracted to Barton from my physical reactions. But he also knew me well enough to realize it took a damn sight more than physical attraction to spread my legs for someone.