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  Her upper body collapsed on top of him while Charlie still held her hips in his hands. He was thrusting into her but slower now, as if waiting for permission.

  “Are you okay, Allie?” Alex whispered, well aware Charlie could hear his question.

  “Perfect,” she replied quickly, raising her lips to kiss him. She was too enthralled to realize the battle of conscience being waged behind her.

  Alex returned her kiss then pulled her head to his chest. “She’s perfect,” he repeated.

  He saw relief cover Charlie’s face a split second before the man’s body gave up the attempt at holding back. He thrust into her with a force that threw Alex’s body into overdrive. Over and over he watched his friend’s face, his body, as he made love to Allie—and Alex wondered what it would feel like to be taken with such unrestrained desire and need by him.

  He felt Allie come, but Charlie continued to pound into her soft body as if stopping would signal his death. She screamed with her second orgasm and Alex saw Charlie’s body begin to shudder with its own release.

  Charlie’s beautiful, pained face and Allie’s throaty, sexy screams as they climaxed together sent Alex over the edge and he came roughly against Allie’s stomach, without a single touch.

  Charlie collapsed by his side as Allie lay atop him. His friend’s big hand reached over to brush Allie’s dark hair out of her face and Alex felt his heart stop at Charlie’s nearness. They were lying naked, side by side, but Charlie didn’t seem disturbed by their too-close proximity. It was all Alex could do not to reach over and grasp Charlie’s other hand as it lay carelessly next to his.

  Allie’s soft breathing alerted him to the fact that she’d fallen asleep again.

  “We’re going to have to do something about this habit she has of passing out every time she has an orgasm,” Alex whispered.

  Charlie chuckled and spoke in a hushed undertone. “I thought men were supposed to conk out after sex. I’m sorry, man,” he added. “I guess you’re suffering a serious case of blue balls right about now.” Apparently Charlie hadn’t noticed Alex’s pubescent response to his climax.

  “I’m okay. We’ve got all the time in the world.” As soon as the words passed his lips, he saw Charlie’s relaxed position stiffen and a cloud of confusion cover his friend’s face.

  “Do we?” Charlie asked.

  Alex sighed, well aware that this conversation was inevitable. Allie shifted slightly on his chest but didn’t wake up. He gently lowered her to his opposite side, wondering how Charlie would feel about the two of them lying side by side without Allie as a buffer in the middle. When he didn’t move, Alex released a small breath of relief.

  “I’m not playing a game, Charlie.”

  “I didn’t think you were. I’m just not sure what it is we’re doing here, Alex. I’m in love with Allie. I always have been.”

  “So have I,” Alex challenged. For years he’d suffered in silence over Allie’s departure. He was tired of hiding his feelings for the woman. Hell, he was tired of hiding his feelings period.

  “Fuck,” Charlie said, looking up at the ceiling. “I was afraid of that.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Damn, Alex. You’re my best friend. I don’t want to fight with you over a woman, but Allie…”

  “Allie isn’t just any woman.”

  “No, she’s not,” Charlie said sadly.

  “I don’t see us fighting over her,” Alex added. “I see us sharing her.”

  Charlie glanced back at him, surprise in the lines of his face. “We can’t do this forever.”

  “Why not?”

  His question seemed to stop Charlie in his tracks. “What do you mean, why not? Because this is sex, not a lifestyle, Alex. Shit, I was an ass to have even let this start.”

  Charlie rose from the bed and reached down to retrieve his pants. As he pulled them up, he walked to the window, never looking back. Alex felt his absence from the bed immediately.

  “We can’t both keep her,” Charlie said after several minutes.

  “I’ll ask again, why not?”

  “Because it’s not natural, not normal. Not that I would expect you to understand that. You, who just grabs whatever the hell he wants without considering the consequences,” Charlie said.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  “Dammit, Alex! You don’t see the lines, the limits that most normal people see. We can’t share Allie forever!” Charlie hissed, obviously struggling not to raise his voice and wake Allie.

  “Who says? I can’t think of anything more natural than being with you and Allie. We’ll move her out of that stupid townhouse and in here with us. We can knock down that damn wall between our houses and renovate the inside. Make it a real home for the three of us.”

  Charlie reeled back in shock and Alex cursed his wayward tongue. He hadn’t meant to throw all his hopes and dreams for the future in his friend’s face so soon. Fact was, he’d made sure when they’d built the house that it could easily be remodeled into one. At the time, he’d told Charlie it was just in case they ever had trouble trying to sell it, but in the back of his mind he’d been planning, praying for the day when they’d all move in together.

  “Allie’s only been home a few weeks. We’ve spent one night together. It’s too soon to make plans like that. Fuck, I think it’ll always be too soon for that crazy plan.” Charlie’s voice was rambling, bewildered.

  “I wasn’t suggesting we head out to the shed and get the sledgehammers now.” Alex was trying to keep his voice light, relaxed. It wouldn’t do for Charlie to see how much he was banking on keeping this ménage going. Charlie was clearly still uneasy about them spending the night together.

  “Christ, man, I just wasn’t expecting it to be this way.”

  Alex rose from the bed and pulled on his jeans. He crossed the room to stand beside Charlie. “I know it’s kind of out there, but I don’t think it’s completely impossible. There will be some bumps in the road, but we both love her. Before we start making plans for pistols at dawn, let’s give this sharing idea a try. If it doesn’t work out, we can schedule a fight to the death for her.”

  Alex’s jest had the desired effect and Charlie laughed for a moment before sobering and looking back toward Allie’s sleeping form on the bed.

  “I didn’t expect the sex to be… I mean, having you in the bed with Allie and me, it’s just so…”

  Now it was Alex’s turn to laugh. Charlie was never at a loss for words. To see him struggling to describe something so indescribable was rather entertaining.

  “At least you’re finally calling it sex. If you’d tried to call it ‘doing the dirty’, I think I would have had to punch you in the mouth,” Alex teased.

  They laughed as Charlie acknowledged the truth in his words. Ever since high school, his friend had jokingly referred to sex as “doing the dirty” and it drove Alex nuts.

  Their shared laughter died down slowly and Charlie shook his head. “It will never be that with her,” he said at last.

  “I know what you mean, man.” He reached up and lightly punched Charlie on the arm, thankful that for now they seemed to have reached a tacit agreement to forge ahead.

  “I would like to suggest that the two of us get out there and start rustlin’ up some breakfast for that girl. I have a strong suspicion she won’t stay with either one of us if we don’t start working in some regular mealtimes,” Alex joked.

  Charlie’s laugh was overshadowed by his rumbling stomach. “I’ll whip us up some omelets. You can start the coffee.” Charlie threw a friendly arm over his shoulders and Alex felt his heart skip a beat at the motion.

  As they walked to the kitchen, Alex couldn’t hold back the small sense of relief that he’d narrowly dodged an exploding bomb while trying to work his way out of the damn minefield he’d plopped them all in the midst of.

  He also couldn’t fight back the feeling that if they made it through safely and with their
hearts intact, it would be a miracle.

  Chapter Six

  Charlie glanced out the front window of his house, certain he’d heard a car on the drive. It had been one week to the day since they’d embarked on this odd love affair and he still found himself struggling with the idea of it despite the fact the sex was hotter than hell.

  Allie had spent last weekend with them before returning to her townhouse on Sunday. Since then the three of them had gone out for several dinners, getting reacquainted and catching up on the past six years. He had to admit Allie had done some incredible things and seen some amazing places. Hell, half the time he found himself jealous of her experiences. Her face lit up when she talked about the years she’d spent away and Charlie could see how much she’d grown up, changed.

  Typically after dinner they ended up at one of their houses for some of the hottest, wildest sex he’d ever experienced. Unfortunately Allie hadn’t spent an entire night with them since the weekend and Charlie was anxious to change that. He liked the idea of waking up in the morning with her in his arms.

  Last night, after they’d dropped her off at her townhouse, she’d promised to come today at five for dinner at his place. It was now seven thirty and the idea of her walking away, hitting the road and disappearing from their lives again kept playing over and over in his head. He cursed himself for acting like a damn fool. He never behaved this way, never worried about what a woman was or wasn’t doing.

  Ever since last weekend, he’d felt like a fool, like a teenage boy with his first girlfriend…and boyfriend.

  Fuck.

  The idea that he was embarking on a new relationship with not just Allie, but Alex as well, was seriously working on his nerves. They’d spent the entire weekend and a good part of this week together in bed, making love, touching, talking, teasing, and everything had felt fresh and new and perfect.

  Fuck.

  The word perfect seemed to hover in his mind constantly. How could something so innately wrong feel so completely right? The image of Alex kissing Allie, pushing into her with his thick cock and loving her with such tenderness was emblazoned on his brain.

  He’d been completely useless at work this week as he constantly felt his thoughts drifting back to their shared time together. Mercifully, Brooks and Travers had both called in sick most of the week. Yeah right. Obviously they hadn’t managed to free themselves from the love trap Ginny had set for Travers. For once though, Charlie had been thankful for their absence. He wasn’t looking forward to facing Ginny when word of what the two of them had been doing with her sister reached her. Christ, she’d kill them.

  Charlie glanced back toward the window, his thoughts of the three of them in bed playing through his mind again. The memories haunted him and left him rock-hard as he found himself mesmerized by the images of Alex as much as Allie. What the hell did that mean?

  “You know, a watched pot never boils,” came a voice from the doorway dividing his side of the house from Alex’s.

  “Thanks, Grandma. Any other stupid expressions you wanna lay on me?”

  Alex laughed. “How about patience is a virtue? She’s running a little late, Charlie. No big deal. Apparently, time has not made your heart grow fonder because if it had, you would remember that Allie is one of those people who always plans to be somewhere on time but never is. Twenty bucks says she walks in here with some epic tale about why she’s so late.”

  “You’re on,” Charlie said, praying he’d have to fork over the money. He just couldn’t shake the idea that they’d come on too strong and Allie had split to escape them.

  Tires on the driveway put him out of his misery. “Ah,” Alex said as the headlights of Allie’s car flashed through the window. “Right on time.”

  Three minutes later, Allie crashed through the front door of Charlie’s side of the house, her arms laden with packages and catalogs and a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder.

  “Oh my God,” Allie said breathlessly. “You would not believe the day I’ve had.”

  Alex flashed a grin over his shoulder at him and Charlie struggled not to roll his eyes. The moment the words left her mouth, the past came crashing around him and he suddenly recalled Allie saying those exact same words about a thousand times in their youth. He grinned and fought hard against the laughter bubbling in his chest. He didn’t want Allie to think he was laughing at her as she began to recite a tale of woe longer and more action-packed then Homer’s Odyssey. As she continued to talk, he reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Taking out a crisp new twenty, he handed it to Alex.

  “What was that for?” Allie asked, taking a break in her story.

  “Just remembered I owed Alex some money,” he answered vaguely. “Go on with your story. What happened after the plumber left?”

  Allie started talking again and Charlie could see Alex was enjoying the sweet sound of her voice as much as he was. The woman knew how to tell a damn funny story, relying heavily on hyperbole to really pack a punch.

  “So it’s official,” she said. “I’m a student again.”

  “Interior decorating, huh?” Alex mused, and Charlie was grateful his friend had been paying attention. He’d been so distracted by her pink lip gloss and wondering how it would taste, he’d obviously missed a few details in her list of the day’s events.

  “I figured why not?” Allie replied. “I mean, Jim left me a hell of a lot of money, but I’m only twenty-eight years old. I don’t wanna spend my days prancing around like Paris fucking Hilton. I’d be bored after ten minutes. So I’m going to take a few classes and try to get a job doing something I enjoy.”

  “You’d be good at interior design,” Charlie added, looking around his living room. During the course of the week, she’d moved all the furniture and hung up a few pictures. He couldn’t believe the difference it made. “I’m glad you had a productive day, Allie, but I think maybe we should have a little discussion about cell phones and what they’re used for.”

  “Cell phones?” she asked.

  “You’re two and half hours late. Did it never occur to you to flip open your cell and give us a call?” He was too relieved by her arrival to really be angry and he wondered for a moment how long it would take him to get over the constant fear that she could leave at any minute.

  “Oh well, yeah, I did think about it, but I forgot to charge the battery. I mean, between trying to register for classes and with the lack of water at the townhouse, I just didn’t think about it.”

  “No worries, hellion,” Alex said, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and placing his chin on her shoulder. Charlie sucked in a breath, awestruck by how good they looked together, how right. “You’re here now and that’s all that matters. I hope the size of that duffel means you packed enough stuff to stay awhile. More than just tonight, maybe?”

  “I can’t exactly stay in a townhouse with no water. I was sort of hoping I could shack up here with you guys ’til it’s fixed. If that’s a problem, I’m sure Ginny would let me—”

  “You’re staying here,” Charlie interrupted, picking up her duffel bag and leading the way back to his bedroom. “Indefinitely,” he added gruffly, annoyed that she thought she even had to ask and definitely not caring if the plumber ever got the water running.

  Allie giggled. “Oh my, someone sounds grumpy.”

  “Charlie’s not exactly the most patient man. He was worried about you, hellion.”

  “I wasn’t worried. I was merely concerned.”

  Allie and Alex laughed at his comment and he couldn’t help but join in.

  “If you two are finished having fun at my expense, I’ve got dinner ready to go. We’ll be lucky if the lasagna isn’t dry as hell at this point.”

  * * * * *

  After dinner, they watched a movie on the big-screen television in Alex’s living room. Charlie grinned, looking down at his friends sprawled out on the oversized sectional couch. Allie’s head was resting on his lap while his feet were propped up on
a soft ottoman. Alex was stretched out on one elbow and spooning Allie from behind, his head just barely grazing Charlie’s shoulder.

  “You sure do know how to live in comfort,” Allie teased, and Charlie was surprised to find her thoughts mirroring his so closely. “Amazing shower, super-sized TV and bed, the softest couch on the planet.”

  “What can I say? I’ve been a bachelor for too long. Too much money and not enough practical stuff to spend it on. Besides, I like to be comfortable,” Alex replied.

  Allie giggled. “And what do you consider practical stuff, if not furniture?”

  “I should be spending all my money on spoiling a wife.”

  Charlie glanced over at his friend to see if he was joking. Never in all their years of friendship had Alex ever mentioned marriage. Allie seemed discomfited by his comment as well and Charlie wondered where she thought this cozy little triangle of theirs was headed.

  She surprised him by responding matter-of-factly. “I’ve never really pictured myself getting married.”

  “What?” Alex asked. “You gotta be kidding me. You’d be an amazing wife.”

  Allie laughed at his words. “Oh my God, shut up, Alex. I would suck at it and you know it. I mean look at me, I can’t even date normally.”

  Charlie’s blood chilled at her words. “Allie, if this is bothering you… If you’re uncomfortable with the three of us—”

  “Oh no, Charlie.” She sat up quickly and placed a finger against his lips. “That’s the problem. I love being here with the two of you. I think maybe I love it a little bit too much.”

  “What’s the problem with that?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t see myself ever wanting this to end.”

  Charlie sighed a breath of relief before realizing her words shouldn’t be so comforting to him.

  “Jesus, you and Charlie sure are birds of a feather,” Alex said, pulling Allie back down in front of him.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Allie asked.