Changing the Rules [Club Libertine 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (2 page)

Mac scowled after him and then turned to the woman on his veranda, prepared to tell her to leave and come back the next day when Sean would interview her.

But as he walked up to her, something changed. Mac looked at her and his mouth went dry. He normally wasn’t the most articulate man, but when he laid eyes on Michelle, his limited small talk dried up completely and he just looked at her standing at his door with the ad in her hand. He was smitten.

She held out her hand and Mac took it. From her expression and her shy demeanor, he suspected she was a virgin. She had trouble meeting his eyes but she tried with a touch of desperation to convince him that she was the right person for the job.

Even as he told himself that she was all wrong and she’d just be a distraction, he found himself offering her the job and they arranged that she'd start first thing the next morning. When he stood up to walk her out, she leaned over impulsively and kissed him on the cheek. As he watched her walking happily down the steps, she turned and waved at him and that was it. He was a goner and he knew it, gave into it and embraced it. And when he went back into his apartment and into the bathroom to ease his aching cock, he was already plotting how he would seduce his new assistant.

He had never felt that way before about a woman. He liked women and he loved having sex with women, preferably in a ménage with his best friend Sean, but it was all about the physical, not the emotional satisfaction. The last thing he needed in his life right now was a virgin temptress taking his attention away from his work, but now that she had presented herself at his door, he wasn’t going to stop himself from having her.

Of course, that didn’t stop him from working her twelve hours a day. But when the workday was done, he set out to win her over. Every penny he had was going into his business, but he knew all the best things to do for free or at least cheap, from walks in the park to visiting museums. She fell hard and fast for Mac.

The next day, Michelle found she liked him immediately. He put her at ease in a way she rarely was with attractive men. He made her laugh and feel beautiful. She wondered what it would feel like if he kissed her.

Sean was tall and blond with an amazing body, but he was also laid back and easygoing with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. He looked like a surfer dude, but he was as sharp as a tack and he carried a gun. She was shocked to find out Sean was actually a cop. He hadn't been wearing a uniform that first day. He spent his spare time helping out his buddy and hoped some day to go into the business full time, but police work was satisfying, in its way, and it paid the bills..

Mac was dark and intense and equally tall, with burning black eyes that seemed to bore right into her. From the moment they met, Mac made it clear that he wanted Michelle. And Michelle found she wanted him, too. But she was also attracted to Sean as well and sometimes wondered what it would have been like if she had spent time with him first, but mostly she tried to put such thoughts out of her head. According to her upbringing, she was going to be damned if she gave into her feelings for Mac. The fact that she had feelings for both of them made her some kind of unredeemable trollop, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d met Mac first and it was to Mac that she owed her first allegiance

Over the next few weeks, she learned a lot about the two friends. While were both tall and athletic, towering over her five feet four inches, their personalities were as different as their looks. They grew up in the same poor neighborhood and had been like brothers since they were toddlers, and Sean’s mother babysat Mac while his single mother went out to work. Sean came from a large and boisterous family, and one more child, especially one as quiet as Mac, was no trouble at all. By the time Mac was old enough to understand, his mother drummed into him that he had ruined her life. If he hadn’t been born, she would have been someone. When he was ten, she’d gone out to work and never come back. Sean’s family had convinced social services to let them keep Mac. But as a result, Mac had what Sean called “trust issues.”

Sean, his mother, and now Michelle were the only people Mac ever trusted.

* * * *

Sean came home from work expecting to hear that Mac had told Michelle she couldn’t have the job and he was ready to call her and offer his condolences and a shoulder to cry on. Her qualifications were adequate, but clearly there were a number of better applicants out there. He had only agreed to interview her because of the desperation that had come across during their brief phone call.

Even though they were in a hurry to hire, he was sure they’d have more and better applicants and Mac was notoriously picky. He was shocked at Mac’s vehemence.

“Wait until you meet her properly. You’ll love her, too. She’s perfect for us."

“I've seen her resume, pal. She’s at best okay for us.”

“I'm not talking about her resume. Sean, I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. I need her. Is this love?” The last words were almost a whisper and then a blush suffused his face. He turned away from Sean and added, “She seems like a very nice young woman who will work hard.”

Sean almost laughed at the agonized look on Mac’s face, but knew his friend was in pain. He was so closed off emotionally because of his upbringing and didn’t trust easily. Sean had never seen him like this over a woman before. He felt a sudden burst of jealousy. He’d seen her first.

“Okay, Mac, you’ve convinced me. I can’t wait to meet her.”

The next day, Sean made sure he was downstairs when she arrived. He had to work, but she was due at eight and he had to leave at eight thirty, but he wasn't going to miss Michelle this time. He’d been attracted from the brief glimpse of her yesterday. She must be something to throw Mac for a loop like this. If she was some kind of slut or opportunist looking to take advantage of Mac, Sean would soon find out and get rid of her. Everyone thought of Mac as the hard-ass and Sean as the sweet dreamer, but Sean could be every bit as tough as his buddy. Whereas Mac held himself close emotionally, Sean let himself be ruled by his passions and could be your best friend or your worst enemy but he had learned to conceal his volatile emotions under a cloak of bonhomie.

And then Michelle was at the door again. It was like déjà vu. Sean felt the same jolt of awareness through him and knew he’d fallen just as hard as Mac. Maybe it was because they were best friends, but they seemed to have similar tastes, and Sean wanted Michelle more than he’d ever wanted a woman in his life.

He broached the subject with Mac but he felt guilty as he did so. He had a much easier time meeting women than Mac, but sometimes fairness didn’t come into it. So he told Mac how he felt. After a long night of talking, they still were at an impasse. They loved each other like brothers and were willing to defer to the other if it killed them. They could both give her up so neither had her, but neither of them was that selfish. If she’d been more experienced, they might have approached her together because sharing women was something they had done before and would gladly do again, but with her inexperience, that didn’t seem to be an option.

So they decided that one of them would make their play and if he was rejected, the other would take his shot. To decide which one got first crack, they fell back to grammar school ways and did rock-paper-scissors. Mac won and Sean felt like he’d been punched in the gut, but he put on a happy face and wished his buddy well. He would step back and be friends to both of them if it killed him. Although, if Michelle gave the slightest indication that she would prefer him, Sean admitted to himself reluctantly that he would knock Mac to the curb in his rush to get to her.

But that never happened. She treated Sean like a big brother. She hugged him and teased him and kissed his cheek, but she never gave him any indication that she thought of him as a man.

A month after they met, Mac took her virginity with Sean in the next bedroom, and he had gone out and gotten rip-roaring drunk to avoid listening to his best friend making love to the women they both loved.

* * * *

Michelle had been wracked with guilt after making love with Mac, but she loved him too much to deny him anything he wanted...

And she was a bit embarrassed by her lack of experience. She was worried she wouldn’t measure up to all of those knowledgeable co-eds who routinely threw themselves at Mac, even seeing Michelle with him.

But Mac loved her inexperience. He didn’t actually care if she was a virgin or not, but he was, he explained, a Dominant. He wanted, no, he needed complete control in the bedroom. With her lack of experience, he could teach her, mold her into the perfect partner for him. She was his and no one else’s.

The first time they made love, when he took her virginity, he was sweet and gentle, but he held her hands over her head and controlled her completely. When she first saw him naked and the size of his erect penis, she was afraid. How would it fit inside of her? It just didn’t seem possible. But he demanded her complete submission, and she was happy to turn control over to him. It took the pressure off her as she worried about doing the wrong thing. The actual moment wasn’t as painful as she had expected. She was overwhelmed when the force of her first orgasm slammed through her.

And over the next few months, there were many firsts for her. The first time he pinched her nipples and she realized the jolt of pain went straight to her clit. The first time he spanked her and she got so wet that she made his pant leg damp. The first time she sucked his cock. But he guided her carefully through the processes, teaching her exactly what pleased him and how to swallow. The first time he clamped her nipples. The first time he tied her to the bed and made her beg for his cock.

He’d done it all to her, and she revelled in it. She loved it when he pushed her to do something she was uncomfortable with, knowing he would never push her too far.

In return, he taught her things about her body she never knew. He learned all of her erogenous zones. He knew how to arouse her with a touch. He knew how to bring her to the brink of climax and then keep her hanging so that she begged for release. And he knew how to use his mouth on her pussy. He gave her more pleasure than she thought was possible.

He whispered into her ear at unexpected times of the day all of the things he was planning to do to her that night using crude language and making her so aroused she had trouble concentrating for the rest of the workday.

She was so in love that she couldn’t see straight.

By June, he’d convinced her that to save money, she should move in with him and Sean.

The best friends shared the run-down house that Mac was using for his company. The business was on the first floor, and the friends had the two bedrooms upstairs.

Michelle couldn’t remember a time she’d been happier than those first months living with Mac and Sean. Mac was a wonderful man and she loved him. He could focus on her and make her feel like she was the only girl in the world, when he wasn’t working her fingers to the bone. Sean made her laugh. He’d take her out for ice cream to take a break when he thought Mac was working her too hard, or challenge her to video games. They had fun together.

But she felt weird, sometimes, with Sean in the next bedroom. She and Mac had an active sex life, and even after a long hard day working, Mac always brought her to several screaming orgasms. One night in bed after a particularly energetic bout of sex, she expressed this concern to Mac.

“You met him first,” he stated. “Were you attracted to him? If I hadn’t been interested, would you have dated him? Slept with him?”

One would think she’d get used to some of the outrageous things that could come out of Mac’s mouth, but this was a new high or low, depending upon how she looked at it, but she couldn’t lie to him.

“Yes, I would probably have been interested in Sean. He’s a good man and very attractive. Would we have dated? Probably. Would we have slept together? Impossible to know. And now that I’m with you, it’ll never happen.”

* * * *

One day in August, she came back to the grocery store to find that Mac and Sean had had a big fight. Sean stormed out as she was letting herself in. Sean? Mister Even Temper? She tried to get Mac to talk about it, but he locked himself in his office and ignored her knocks.

Sean was back in time for dinner. The two men acted as if nothing had happened, but there was an undercurrent that they could all feel.

The next day, she convinced Sean to go out for ice cream after a tension-filled dinner.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” she demanded as they were sitting on the front steps eating their ice cream and watching the sun go down.

He looked at her. He reached out to touch the corner of her mouth which had a drop of ice cream. Then he leaned over and kissed her. He’d kissed her on the cheek before. He’d hugged her. But this was different. Before, he’d touched her like a brother. Now he was kissing her like a man kissed a woman. And she found herself kissing him back. Her ice cream cone dropped forgotten on the steps as their tongues dueled in a timeless dance.

He pulled away. She found she was breathless, her heart pounding. She felt a flutter of desire in the pit of her stomach.

“This. This is what’s wrong. Mac loves you. You love Mac. I love you, too. Really love you, and I want you, but you think of me as a brother.”

She put her hand on his knee. “I do love you, too, Sean. Maybe if we’d met at another time, we’d be together. But I love Mac and I’ve made a commitment to him. I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t leave him. And it’s not like the three of us could be together that way.” She laughed uncomfortably.