Page 24 of Sizzle

“You work for Elliot,” I say slowly.

“Yes,” she says. She’s leaning in like she can’t hear me so I lean in a little closer.

“Elliot’s my friend.”

“I know.” She’s whispering now.

“I didn’t… I didn’t want to make you feel pressured in any way about your new job. Those are hard enough without… additional complications.”

“Complications?”

I can feel the heat of her breath on my cheek. The slightest dip of my will bring us together.

“This is going to be complicated,” I murmur, brushing my lips across hers.

“I don’t care.” Joelle wraps her small fist in my shirt and yanks, closing the gap.

The world fades to nothing behind us as she opens for me. I slide one hand from her cheek into the soft curls behind her ear, relishing the shiver that action yields before fisting my hand in the hair at the back of her head. I tug, just little. Her answering whimper has me going painfully hard in an instant and I tug again.

Joelle’s head falls back and whatever she sees on my face makes her gasp.

“I thought—”

“You thought what, sunshine?” I ask, biting her bottom lip gently.

“I thought you didn’t want me,” she says, looking away.

Hell.

In my mind’s eye, I’m already pulling her over to straddle my lap so I can show her exactly how wrong she is. A heartbeat before I can pull her to me and make that stunning vision a reality, the sound of approaching footsteps finally registers.

He stops a few feet away and no one so much as takes a breath until he speaks.

“Of course he wants you, Joelle,” says Elliot, holding my gaze. “Every man in his right mind wants you.”

For another long, breathless moment, none of us move. Joelle’s closed her eyes, waiting. For what?

My eyes are glued to Elliot’s as I touch my lips to kiss her again, just the faintest brush of skin. Joelle trembles even as Elliot’s quiet moan cuts through the silence.

We’re standing on a precipice here. I’m not sure how we got here but I can feel it, feel them both waiting for me to move us all into what happens next.

I know Elliot wants this girl. I also know he won’t touch her, not as long as he keeps to that rule about dating his employees. I don’t know as much about the beautiful woman currently vibrating with need in my arms, except she tastes like the best that both heaven and hell have to offer and that I haven’t wanted any woman the way I want Joelle.

In the end, I go with the truth.

“He’s right,” I tell Joelle. “I want you, very much. Elliot can tell you what it feels like.”

Joelle is quivering, damn near shaking against me now. Elliot sucks in a breath. We’ve never done anything like this before—never had a threesome or shared a woman. Not even in college. I’m taking one hell of a chance assuming he’ll even consider playing along.

But I think he will. I think he wants Joelle too much and the possibility of touching her even by proxy is more than he can walk away from.

If it wrecks me in the meantime, so be it. If this is the closest I’ll get to seeing him need like this, yearn for someone like this, I’ll take it. It’ll haunt me in every shower wank and wet dream for the rest of my life, but I’ll take it.

“It feels… like my skin is too tight,” Elliot says slowly.

He takes a couple of shuffling steps toward us, his voice low. I keep brushing my lips against Joelle’s in soft, undemanding strokes. Elliot keeps talking, his voice slow, almost hypnotic.

“Every time you look at me, the world goes a little bit dim, like somebody’s turned a dial on everything but you. I can’t catch my breath. My heart pounds like I’ve run three flights of stairs.”

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