Page 41 of His Mansion

“Hey, just because she asks me to sell Park Place doesn’t mean I’ve got to.” Kane snickered as he glanced Jack up and down. “Nice choice of attire, man. You wander the halls of the apartment like that and Santa’s going to put you on the naughty list for sure.”

“Jack? You okay?” Dara slipped off the bed, concern filling her eyes. “You look upset.”

What the hell was going on? Jack glared at them. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” She frowned before slipping a few popcorn kernels into her mouth.

Was he going insane? He could have sworn he’d heard them. He scrambled to recall the actual words, but there was no way he could have misinterpreted the sexual sounds for people playing a board game. Kane turned his face away, but not before Jack caught a glimpse of a smile.

Kane…smiling? Even though Jack stood ready to pound the shit out of him for hurting Dara? What the hell was going on? Understanding broke over him, and for a second he wasn’t sure if he should leave, slug Kane like he’d planned in the first place, or burst out laughing.

“It wasn’t real. What I heard wasn’t real. How the fuck did you… Damn it, you set me up.”

Dara approached cautiously, as if concerned he was going to growl at her again. “Kinda?”

“Hey, no ‘kinda’ about it,” Kane gloated from the bed. He leaned back, hands crossed behind his head, wiggling his brows at Jack. “That was a damn good ruse. He fell for it—hook, line, and sinker.”

She turned slightly and put her finger to her lips. “Shh, he doesn’t need to hear that yet. We can taunt him later.”

“It’s more fun when it’s immediate.” Kane reached beside him and pulled away a pillow to expose a walkie-talkie and his laptop computer. The open screen revealed a shot of Jack’s bedroom from a high angle.

Jack jerked in disbelief. “You set up a camera in my closet? If you wanted to see me naked, you could have just sat on the bloody bed.”

“It’s my cell phone, and yeah, well, you tell me this didn’t get your attention right where it hurt the most.”

Jack glanced back and forth between the two of them. On his right, his best friend grinned openly. On his left, stood the woman he cared about the most in the entire world. Only these two would have the gall to pull him out of a funk before he could wallow in it, because they were the only two that knew him, inside and out.

To hell with caution, it was time to take a chance. But they needed to know what cards he was laying on the table. If they’d take him, therealhim, he was willing to try.

He held his arms out and Dara’s face lit up in the split second he had to see it before she threw herself at him. She burrowed in like a nesting animal, tucking tight to his side. “Please, Jack…”

“Spank you?”

From across the room Kane shouted in dismay. “Hey, none of that.”

Jack offered a smirk. “I wasn’t volunteering to spankyou.”

“Thank God.”

Dara wiggled in his arms with her laughter, and he arranged them so he could look her in the eye. “Please what, Dara?”

She took a quick breath and held it for a second before blurting the words out. “Give us a chance. It might not work, but it might. It’s worth a shot.”

Jack waited, watching the emotions roll over her face. He imagined she saw the same kind of things in his. Some fear, tons of need. Rising hope.

Falling in love?

“Sweetheart, it’s not as easy as that. All weekend I’ve been thinking about how right it felt to be with you. When I wasn’t feeling jealous, I even loved watching you with my best friend, even though he does have a serious issue with exhibitionism.”

“Hey!”

Jack flipped Kane the bird, never taking his eyes off Dara’s face. Kane laughed out loud and she smiled as she lifted her hand to his face. Her touch was infinitively soft against the stubble on his jaw.

“But, Dara, I’ve got to tell you the truth. I like to be in charge in the bedroom.”

“I noticed.” She flushed hard. “I liked it.”

He paused. “What if I get even more bossy? Could you still enjoy it? I toned it down a lot the last couple of days, and if we do this thing, I’m not going to do that again.” Jack glanced at Kane who was sitting at attention, listening to his every word. “And you. What if I start ordering you around as well? Especially when it’s the three of us together?”

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