DRIPPING WET

COME ON IN, THE WATER’S WARM.

MIKA LANE
HEADLANDS PUBLISHING
 C O P Y R I G HT

Copyright © 2022 by Mika Lane

Headlands Publishing
4200 Park Blvd. #244
Oakland, CA 94602

Dripping Wet is a work of fiction. Names, characters, (most) places, and

incidents are either the product of the author’s creativity or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or
locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of
the publisher except for the use of quotations in a book review.

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 C O NT E NT S

Copyright
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Note to readers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10

About the Author

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 NOTE TO READERS

H ELLO MY ROMANCE LOVERS ! I’ M SO GLAD YOU ’ RE HERE TO CHECK OUT

Aspen’s story in Dripping Wet, from the Filthy Dirty Summer collection,
and how she goes on one wild ride with her gorgeous men, Teague, Luke,
and Brant. Get ready for a story of forbidden, naughty, and redemptive love
with sexy fun that will leave you wanting more.
 1

S CREEEECHHHHHH .
Oh hell no.
There is little worse than nails on a chalkboard, other than the sound of
the car you weren’t supposed to be driving colliding with a mailbox. That
high-pitched, ear-splitting squeal of metal on metal is without a doubt
worse, particularly when your shitty driving skills are the cause of it.
From where I sat, in the driver’s seat, the passenger side mirror
provided a perfect view of where the nasty sound had originated.
I put the car in reverse and gave it a little gas, as if that might undo my
mistake.
Screeeechhhhhh.
Not helping.
I wasn’t sure how to move the car off the faux-rustic post, designed to
fit with the house it collected mail for—one of those old-fashioned mailbox
jobs with the flag to let you know whether or not you’d gotten mail.
Did weekend homes really get mail? Or was this another façade, one of
many that my famous and rich fashion designer boss cultivated with
excellence?
Ready to kill someone or something, I exited the car with the intention
of assessing the damage I’d caused. But I stopped before I’d rounded the
trunk. I didn’t have the balls to see exactly what I’d done, at least not at that
moment. But I’d have to deal with it at some point, because I was there, in
part, to pick up the freaking mail.
And while this was a bad situation all around, the worst of it was that
the car was my boss’s, a shiny white BMW, also representative of the
perfect life she had, or at least made the world think she had.
So no, I didn’t have permission to drive her car.
I’d messed up. Big time.
I looked up the long, gravel driveway leading to Lake LaRenne’s
massive Southampton ‘weekend house’ as she called it, and then back at her
pretty car.
The one I wasn’t supposed to drive.
Car and mailbox damage aside, it was an image of affluent perfection.
An oversized house on the beach, covered in weathered shingles to make it
look a little rustic and, well, beachy, could have nothing other than a luxury
car in its drive. No, a Honda Civic, like my parents drove back in Iowa,
would have been ridiculously out of place.
I never should have taken her car. I knew that from the moment I drove
out of her Manhattan garage, where her monthly parking spot lease cost as
much as my monthly rent.
But for fuck’s sake, the woman was over in France or Italy chasing
Eurodick like she did several times a year when she traveled abroad for
‘meetings’ or some bullshit.
I knew her latest conquest was a chiseled male model at least twenty
years her junior because he’d sent a dickpic—to me.
Yeah, the dumbass pretty boy had confused her phone number with
mine, which she loved to give out so all the world knew she was important
enough to have an assistant. Because of that, I occasionally got her calls or
texts.
But the dickpic had been a first. Particularly since it was of an
uncircumcised penis. Thus, the term, Eurodick.
I grabbed my duffel from the BMW’s front seat, slammed the car door,
and pressed lock on the key fob. Like anyone was going to try and steal a
car stuck to a mailbox post anyway.
As I trudged toward the house on the uneven gravel in my platforms,
the sea air whipped hair around my face. While for a moment I enjoyed the
scent of the ocean, I remembered I’d just washed my hair that morning and
did not want it turning into a ball of frizz. I pulled my hoodie up and
followed the crunchy path to the front door, let myself in, and turned off the
house alarm before it could start blaring.
The ninety-five-ish mile drive from Manhattan hadn’t been too bad. I
mean, of course there was the usual New York and Long Island traffic, but
I’d had the music cranked, the sunroof open, and even if I were sitting in
traffic, at least I was doing it in a sweet ride. I’d never driven a BMW.
Shit, I’d never even been in one.
But a nice car and cool tunes can only distract a person for so long when
sitting in bumper-to-bumper New York traffic. So naturally, the very thing I
was hoping to forget popped up in my thoughts like a bad penny—my
recent ex. I wasn’t so bent out of shape that he’d dumped my ass—which he
had—but because he’d had the nerve to tell me I never took chances.
Played it too safe. Didn’t have what it took to take risks.
I was boring.
Well, he didn’t say that last bit, but I was pretty sure that’s what he was
getting at.
And, look at me now.
I’d just driven my boss’s car out to the Hamptons on a summer
weekend, and now was in her freaking insane beach house.
Suck on that, motherfucker.
A little car accident notwithstanding.
I stood in the doorway of Lake’s house, taking it all in. As expected, it
was a perfectly-designed blend of rustic-but-not-too-rustic chic, with huge
abstract paintings on the wall providing a dizzying contrast to the splintery
wood planks of the foyer floor, and long bench that looked like it had been
lifted from an old church.
I walked farther into the house, marveling that someone could own
something like this and hardly ever use it. And, apparently, she now wanted
to get rid of it. That’s why she’d sent me here. I was supposed to take the
Hampton Jitney weekend bus to not only pick up the mail and a couple
other things, but to also make sure everything was in tip-top shape for the
real estate agent’s private showings scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday.
Why hadn’t I just taken the damn bus?
Oh right. It was because I was someone who took chances. I didn’t play
it safe. I had what it took to take risks.
I was not boring.
Look where that had gotten me.
I wandered through the living room with its giant, white, overstuffed
sofas and loveseats, stacks of strategically-placed coffee table books, and
high-end scented candles I recognized from the ones she often burned in the
office. I was tempted to plop onto one of those sofas and put my feet up, but
after what I’d done to the BMW, I was going to be very careful about what I
touched.
Although when she found out what I’d done to the car, I’d probably be
fired, anyway. So, I just tossed my hoodie onto a chair, pretending for a
moment that I actually lived there.
I opened a couple windows to air the place out. No one had been there
in so long it had gotten musty.
And as I did, I heard voices. Male voices.
I knew the Hamptons were generally safe, given that they were the
summer playground for the New York wealthy, but I also knew no one was
expected there at the house except me.
I grabbed my cell phone and crept toward the back of the house,
following the noise. As I did, it got louder, like shouting-louder.
“Move it fucker!” a male voice shouted.
Oh my god.
I dialed 9-1-1 and kept my finger on the send button, ready to alert the
authorities.
The shouting continued, followed by a loud crash.
Thank god I’d come along when I had, but when I spotted the source of
the voices—three men—I saw they weren’t your everyday intruders.
Rather, they looked like models from a Ralph Lauren catalogue.
But who knew? Maybe that’s what burglars looked like in this preppy
part of the world.
I pushed open a kitchen window just far enough to shout, finger still on
the 9-1-1 send button. “Hey. What’s going on here?” I hollered in my best
badass voice.
The noise came to an immediate stop, and when I stuck my head out the
window farther, I saw various backyard-tending sorts of equipment.
Were they stealing this stuff? Who in the Hamptons steals hedge
clippers?
The three guys whipped around to face me, clearly as surprised to see
me as I was them.
“Well?” I demanded.
“Oh. Hey,” one said, scraping his hair off his forehead with one hand
and giving me a wave with the other.
Holy shit, he was gorgeous. I mean, there were plenty of good-looking
guys in Manhattan, but I’d never seen the likes of this.
 Focus, idiot.
“Are… are you supposed to be here?” I asked, keeping my voice low
and menacing.
Unbothered, they looked at each other and shrugged.
“Yeah,” one said, picking up a pool skimmer. “I’m cleaning the pool
and Brant here is trimming the bushes.”
Brant stepped forward. “Well, I will be trimming the bushes as soon as I
chase off the raccoons nesting in there. Little bastards.”
I turned to the guy who’d said hello. “What about you? What are you
doing here?” I asked.
With his hands on his hips, he smiled and looked down at his feet for a
moment, then looked back at me with a swagger no doubt designed to
knock me off my feet.
Try again, mister.
“I’m just along for the ride with my buddies. You know, helping them
out,” he said with a cocky, lopsided grin. “Someone’s gotta supervise these
losers.”
That earned him a slap on the back of the head with the long-handled
pool skimmer.
“Fuck off, dude,” he said, rubbing his head and laughing.
Okay. I knew his type.
I slipped my cell phone into the pocket of my dress, but frowned in an
effort to maintain my authority. “Lake didn’t tell me anyone would be
here,” I snapped.
Mister Swagger took a couple steps toward the house. “We come every
Friday. But we weren’t told you would be here. So who are you?”
Really? He wanted to play like that?
I pulled the kitchen window shut and walked over to the sliding glass
door off a gigantic, tiled dining room. It overlooked a covered patio
appointed with what looked to be very expensive teak furnishings, a
sparkling swimming pool, and the ocean beyond.
Holy shit. No wonder she had to hire people to maintain all this. And
she wanted to sell it? The woman was crazy.
I stepped out onto the patio and stretched to my full height. It wasn’t
lost on me that the guys were eyeing me up and down, staring at my
platform sandals and my short and swingy summer dress. “I’m Lake’s
assistant, Aspen. Why didn’t I see your cars out front?”
 Brant lowered his sunglasses and gestured toward the side of the
property. “The service entrance is over there. That’s where we always
park.”
Service entrance? What planet had I just landed on?
The cocky one approached me with an outstretched hand. “I’m Teague,”
he said with a devilish smile. “That’s Brant with the backward cap. And
mister man-bun over there is Luke.”
Now that I could see the totality of them, I was glad I hadn’t been a
bigger bitch. Dark suntans and physiques sculpted by hard work were
weaknesses of mine.
Brant and Luke, continuing to drip with sweat even during my
interrogation, were shirtless. Their cargo shorts hung well below their
waists. Brant’s exposed the top of his boxers, and Luke’s revealed some
dark hair that disappeared beneath his waistband—
Down girl.
Teague, who clearly thought his shit didn’t stink, was the only one not
sweating. A T-shirt stretched across his chest and around his biceps and
now I knew Lake was really crazy for giving up her house. She preferred
Eurodick to this?
“How long have you worked for Miss LaRenne?” Luke asked politely,
hiking up his shorts after he’d seen me staring.
Long enough for her to realize my design talent and steal my ideas,
adding to her already-massive fashion empire.
Well, I wasn’t completely certain she was stealing my ideas. But I had a
strong suspicion, after her latest collection had come out eerily similar to
some of the drawings I’d done for her.
Drawings of mine that she patiently explained needed a lot more work
before they’d be viable design options.
Seemed they were viable enough for her to steal, though.
“I’ve been her assistant for about six months. I was chosen out of
hundreds of recent fashion design graduates,” I said proudly.
Ugh. Why was I telling these guys this? I was sure they couldn’t give a
shit about the latest chick to waltz into town from the city and act like she
owned the place.
To prove I wasn’t one of those, I backpedaled a little. “Hey, sorry I
grilled you guys. I was worried you were, you know, burglars or
something.”
 Luke waved his hand like it was nothing. “We surprise people all the
time. They forget they scheduled us, or arrive, like you did, when we’re in
the middle of our work. No harm done.”
Teague rolled his shoulders back and puffed out his chest. Because, of
course. “That’s true, but we’re not usually confronted by someone as
attractive as you.”
I looked at him a minute to see if he was pulling my leg, and when the
sincere expression remained on his face, I doubled over, fake-laughing.
What the hell else could I do? One of the most beautiful men I’d ever
seen had just paid me a compliment. He might have been blowing smoke up
my ass, but on some level it still felt nice, especially after the ex left me
feeling so… lacking.
“That’s very nice of you to say, Teague,” I said, regaining my footing.
“So guys, there are some private open houses for this place tomorrow and
Sunday. So please do your best and make the grounds beautiful. It will
make my boss very happy.”
Brant started throwing his tools into a wheelbarrow and wiped the sweat
from his eyes. “Miss LaRenne is selling? Are you kidding? This is one of
the best properties in town.”
I nodded and rolled my eyes in agreement. “Can you believe it? I think
she wants to get a place in the south of France. Figures she won’t be out
here often enough anymore.”
“Interesting. We usually know when properties are going on the
market,” he said, looking at his buddies.
Teague thoughtfully scratched his chin. “Yeah. Interesting.”
I wasn’t sure what was so interesting about a house going up for sale,
but I didn’t want to keep these guys from their work.
I had some things to do myself.
“Well then maybe one of you guys should buy it,” I said, laughing. I
pulled the door closed, locking myself inside.
They waved and got back to what they were doing, Luke fiddling with
the pool, Brant using some motorized thing to trim the bushes, and Teague
standing there, staring back at the house.
 2

M Y PHONE BUZZED AND I LOOKED DOWN TO SEE IT WAS NONE OTHER THAN
Lake LaRenne herself.
“Hi, Lake,” I said, as if I’d not just crashed her BMW.
“Aspen! Are you at the house? How was the Jitney?” she sang.
There was some sort of racket in the background. Like a squeaking bed.
Ew.
“Um, yeah, it was great. Yup. All is well. Just got here a bit ago. I’m
opening some windows to let fresh air in. The pool guy and landscaper are
out back.”
There was a rustle of fabric and the sound of a slap.
“Eek!” she said. “Sorry, Aspen. I am just so damned busy here. Thank
you for checking on the house for me. Don’t forget my mail and to grab the
laptop I left on the kitchen counter. Make yourself at home tonight in the
guest bedroom but please be sure to wash the sheets before you catch the
8am bus back to the city. ‘Kay?”
Was she serious? She wanted me to get up, do laundry, and take the first
bus home? She was freaking crazy.
Of course, I was crazy to have taken her car. But I’d deal with that later.
“Aspen? Are you still there?” she asked, another slap and another eek
following.
God, she was rude. I mean, I knew she talked to me over the phone
when she was on the toilet taking a pee and stuff, but while Eurodick was
slapping her ass?
Just no.
 I was staying in her goddamn house as long as I felt like it. Well, I’d be
back at work on Monday, but still.
And the ex said I never took risks?
Ha.
“Sounds good, Lake, just a little hard to hear you over long distance, ya
know?” I lied while poking through her freezer and helping myself to some
fancy designer ice cream. That was somehow fat-free.
“Great, Aspen, and feel free to help yourself to anything in the kitchen,
okay?”
I shoveled a spoonful of the ice cream in my mouth. “Thanks. Sounds
good.”
“Okay. A bientot!” she sang. “I’m learning French,” she giggled, and
was gone.
Just as I was reading the side of the ice cream carton to try and figure
out how something so good could be fat-free, there was a rap on the back
door.
I slid it open a few inches.
“Hey, we’re leaving now. Just wanted to let you know,” Luke said,
pulling out his man bun and shaking the sweat out of his hair.
And when he did, I caught his scent, which I would have expected to be
gross from working in the hot sun, but was actually a delicious mix of some
sort of masculine soap and the slightest whiff of body odor. It was so
appealing, I had to stuff my hands in my pockets to keep from removing the
small twig stuck in his hair.
Cripes. Maybe I should invite him in for… water or something?
“Oh, okay,” I said, wiping a drop of ice cream from the front of my
dress, “you thirsty?”
He pointed toward what he’d called the ‘service entrance.’ “We have a
cooler in the truck. Thanks though. You heading out soon?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yup. Back to the city,” I said, cheerfully.
They didn’t need to know my plans.
They took off across the lawn, waving over their shoulders.
Ah. Alone at last.
Having devoured the ice cream, I grabbed a big glass of water and
wandered onto the patio, which now not only smelled of the ocean air, but
also the just-cut greenery of Lake’s yard. What I wouldn’t do to bottle that.
Guess that’s why people had beach houses.
 After kicking off my platforms, I circled the pool, dipping a toe to test
the temperature.
Perfection.
Looking around to make sure I had total privacy, I slipped my dress off
over my head, dropped my bra to the ground, and dove in, just wearing my
panties.
Pure heaven.
I did a couple mini-laps, then moved to the center of the pool, where I
treaded water for a while. I had no access to a swimming pool in
Manhattan, so this was a treat of massive proportion.
Floating on my back, I watched the water bead up on my stomach and
breasts. The warm sun and the sound of the ocean were mesmerizing, and I
realized I was tired. Well, I was always tired. I found life in Manhattan to be
exhausting. All the people, the long hours one was expected to work, and
the high cost of just about everything left me in a near-constant state of
anxiety.
So, I got out of the pool, lay down on the warm concrete deck just next
to it, and bunched up my dress to use as a little pillow.
I don’t know how long I’d been snoozing before I was startled awake.
For a split second, I looked up at the blue sky and my gorgeous
surroundings and wasn’t sure where I was.
But when my head did clear and familiar voices grew closer, I panicked,
grabbing my dress and wrestling it over my head. In the struggle to make
myself decent, I yanked it hard. Too hard. It responded with a long riiiip
down the side seam, followed by my forgotten cell phone slipping from its
pocket.
Into the pool.
Yay, me.
Tossing the dress aside, I dove back into the pool after my phone,
grabbing it just before it hit bottom. When I surfaced, I shook it, as if that
would do anything, and realized the voices were of the guys who’d been
there earlier.
What the hell were they doing back? Did they forget something?
I silently set my phone on the pool deck and lowered myself back into
the water under the pool’s edge, in the hope that if they were just passing
through, they might not notice me.
Yeah, right.
 From the direction of the service entrance, the guys came into view, just
as fucking hot and handsome as they had been earlier in the day, but this
time wearing big smiles and carrying a small cooler.
No way. Were they here for a swim? To help themselves to Lake’s pool?
Assholes.
Although, I supposed I wasn’t much better, helping myself to Lake’s
car. And pool.
They were going to notice me sooner or later, so I decided to outflank
them. “Hey,” I shouted, “you guys aren’t supposed to be here.”
Startled, they followed my voice until they spotted me.
“Oh. Look who it is,” Teague said, clearly undeterred, ripping off his
shirt and removing his cargo shorts to reveal blue swim trunks.
He smiled and jogged over to the pool. “Holy shit, guys. Aspen isn’t
wearing anything. What happened, forget your bathing suit?” He laughed,
diving in.
No, no, no. This was not supposed to happen.
I cowered in a corner of the pool, legs drawn up out of modesty, and
started to wave my arm like shooing away a fly. “Get out. You’re not
allowed in here,” I insisted.
But he just swam to the middle of the pool without a care in the world,
treading water in the same spot I had earlier. He tilted his wet, chiseled face
up to the blue sky and closed his eyes. How could someone so annoying be
so handsome?
“Gorgeous day. Freaking gorgeous, isn’t it?” He flipped onto his back
and with a little flutter of his hands, began to float.
I looked over at Brant and Luke, who seemed like they were at least
considering my demand that they hit the road.
“Hey, Teague, we should probably go—” Brant started to say.
But Luke cut him off. “Why is your phone sitting in a puddle of water?”
he asked, hustling around the edge of the pool to where I’d left it, politely
pretending I wasn’t nearly naked by looking everywhere but in my
direction.
He picked it up and gave it a little shake. “Oh shit. Phone in the pool,”
he said.
Still balled up in the corner, I nodded. “Yup.”
He turned it upside down and then back up. “I may be able to fix it,” he
said.
 “Nah, Luke, she said we have to leave. We’d better get out of here,”
Teague chanted before he dove under the water and did a handstand.
Dick.
Brant joined Luke in checking over my waterlogged phone. “Hey, how
’bout we give it a shot?” he asked. “Is there any rice in the kitchen?”
I shrugged, trying to figure out how I could cover myself with a torn
dress that was clear across the pool. “You can go check if you want.”
They nodded at each other and headed for the house.
Teague surfaced, a little closer to me than I would have liked. “You
know, I’m all about skinny dipping too. In fact, I could skinny dip right
now.” He made like he was about to remove his swim trunks.
“No!” I yelled. “Would you please go get me a towel so I can get out of
the pool without exposing myself? Please?”
He rolled his eyes and swam to the edge where he hoisted himself out of
the water and onto the deck in one smooth movement. The water beaded up
on his back, glistening in the sun and highlighting the graceful swell of the
muscles in his back.
He might be a smart ass but he sure was a good looking one.
He grabbed a towel off a lounge chair and turned to face me, his
handsome brow all the more prominent with his hair slicked off his face. As
he walked toward me, he ran his fingers through it, shaking it out, his gaze
locked with mine.
And yes, he wore that smirky little half-smile that both irritated the shit
out of me, and tickled my core at the same time.
What the fuck?
“Here,” he said, holding the towel up like a big curtain over by the
pool’s steps. “I’ll hold this and close my eyes while you climb out.”
Well. A gentleman after all.
I dog paddled across the pool so as not to expose myself, and with a
glance around to make sure no one was looking, I bounded up the steps as
fast as the water would let me, and leapt for the towel.
But I wasn’t fast enough.
In a lightning-fast move, Teague pulled the towel away from me and
turned to stare, taking in my panty-clad, dripping wet body.
“You asshole,” I screamed, and lunged for the towel with a ferocity that
made his eyes widen through his laughter.
 “Jesus, take it,” he said, giving up and tossing it toward me while wisely
taking two steps back.
I quickly wrapped myself and marched over to the cooler the guys had
brought. I pulled out a can of Bud, which I chucked with all my might in
Teague’s direction. The first one skimmed his shoulder before it landed in
the bushes.
“Hey, hey, that’s our beer,” he hollered.
I grabbed the next can and threw it, this time missing him completely
but hitting the deck, where it exploded its fizzy contents all over the
concrete.
He bent to pick it up as if he could salvage a few sips, when I took aim
one last time and hit him right in the chest.
“Ow, shit,” he yelled, stumbling forward and placing a hand on the spot
where I’d beaned him.
My work was done.
There were three beers left in the cooler, so I grabbed one and popped
the top on it, taking a nice, long swig.
I hadn’t had a beer in ages.
Brant and Luke appeared in the doorway at the commotion.
Fuck ‘em all.
“Ugh, guys, what’s going on?” Brant asked, looking at the beer cans
strewn over the backyard, and Teague rubbing the store spot on his chest.
Baby.
“Well,” I said after lifting my beer in salute to the guys, “Teague
thought he was entitled to a look at me getting out of the pool. I got a
little… pissed.”
Luke looked around, his eyes wide. “Guess so.”
I walked around to the side of the pool and retrieved my torn dress.
“Any word on my phone, guys?”
Brant looked up from the mess I’d made. “Oh. Yeah. It’s sitting in the
rice we found in the cupboard. Time will tell if it’s gonna work. You never
know.”
“But it’s worth trying,” Luke added.
Shit. First Lake’s car. Now my phone. And I couldn’t get rid of these
pesty guys.
“What? Did you call us pesty?” Teague asked.
Oops. Had I said that out loud?
 “Whatever,” I mumbled, collapsing onto a lounge chair, clutching the
towel around me in one hand and my ruined dress in the other.
“Um, another thing, Aspen,” Luke said cautiously, “what’s up with that
car out front? The one that’s smashed into the mailbox?”
All right. That was it. I’d had enough.
I buried my face in my hands and moaned. Loudly. “That’s my boss’s
car. Which I was not supposed to be driving.”
“Oh shit, you crashed your boss’s car?” Brant asked.
I looked up at him and nodded slowly. “I’m fucked. Plain and simple,
I’m fucked. She thinks I took the Jitney here and am returning on it at 8am
tomorrow. After I launder the sheets I’ve slept on, of course.”
I laughed weakly and it wasn’t until a pain shot through my jaw that I
realized I’d been clenching, actually, grinding my teeth.
What a mess.
“We… we could take a look at it for you,” he said.
I looked up at him through squinted eyes. A headache was circling my
head like a hungry vulture. “You can?” I croaked.
I wanted them out of there, but I wasn’t an idiot.
“Where’re the keys?” he asked.
I gestured toward the house as Luke and Brant trotted off to their next
task.
And who joined me by taking a seat at the end of my lounge chair but
Teague. He put a hand on my calf and patted me gently. “Sorry I teased you
with the towel, Aspen. I didn’t realize you were that close to the edge, ready
to lose your shit.”
Close to the edge. Ready to lose my shit.
Well put.
I sighed. “It’s all right. I know you were just playing around. Although
I’m still not happy you got to see me in my panties.” I tried to sound pissed,
but couldn’t suppress the giggle that escaped.
“There ya go,” he said. “Finding the humor. I like that. Don’t worry,
Aspen, we can help you out of this mess. We know everyone here in town
and most everything that goes on. You’ve stumbled into the right guys.”
I shrugged, picking at what was left of last month’s manicure. Lake
might have been providing me a great job opportunity, despite her stealing
my designs, but she paid shit. The only reason I had a manicure was that my
parents had sent me money for my birthday.
 “C’mon, Aspen,” Teague said, moving to the head of my lounger and
pulling me to him with an arm around my shoulders.
I let my head rest on him. Why the hell not?
“I will say,” he said quietly, “you looked pretty fucking awesome
standing there, all shiny and wet, in those clingy, sheer panties.”
I peeked up at him, preparing to give him a major stink-eye, but before I
could, something came over me.
And I pressed my lips to his.
I really did.
It made no sense. But I didn’t care.
I figured that in light of an otherwise shit day, the universe owed me
something, even if it were just a quick kiss with a handsome man.
It was becoming apparent to me, never a particularly fast learner, that
taking risks was not without its price. But some things were just worth it.
 3

“J ESUS , GUYS . G ET A ROOM .”

I jerked away from Teague’s surprisingly soft lips and found Luke and
Brant standing there, watching.
“Oh, hey,” I said, bolting to my feet and pulling the towel tighter.
Teague leaned back on the lounge chair wearing his usual shit-eating
grin. “Leave it to you fuckers to cockblock me.”
Brant rolled his eyes. “If you two are done sucking face, we can talk
about the car. We have someone on their way over to get it. Lucky for you,
Aspen, we see a lot of BMWs here in Southampton, and my cousin owns
his own body shop. He should be able to slot you in tomorrow morning. If
he’s in a really good mood and I buy him a nice bottle of scotch, he might
even work on Sunday to get it finished so you can be back in the city for
work Monday.”
“Oh my god!” I squealed, running to throw my arms around him while
gripping my towel in modesty. “I don’t know how I will repay you for this.
You have no idea how you are saving my ass.”
Good news and bad. The car was being repaired… but I’d have to pay
for it. I started mental calculations of how much open credit I had.
The headache started circling again.
“I’ll tell ya something, Aspen. If your boss had called the shop, they
would have put her off till next week,” he added. “But we hooked you up.”
Things were working out in my favor.
“Thank you again. It sure helps to know the locals, I guess. Now all I
have to do is get my phone up and running, and I’ll be in great shape.”
 I followed Luke around the pool, where he was picking up the beer cans
I’d thrown. “What would be great, Aspen, was if you went and got dressed,
and came to happy hour with us,” he said.
Teague looked at his watch and jumped to his feet. “Party time!” he
sang, pulling his cargo shorts back on over his now-dry bathing suit.
Luke looked longingly at the pool. “Damn, I didn’t even get a swim in.”
“What were you guys doing back here, anyway? Besides trespassing,
that is.”
“We thought you’d be gone. To be honest, we swim here all the time,”
Brant said.
Holy crap. If Lake knew that, her head would freaking explode. But she
wasn’t going to find out from me.
“You don’t have anywhere else to swim?” I asked.
Brant and Luke looked over at Teague.
“My dad’s house here has a pool, but my grandparents spend most of
their summer there. So, sure we swim there, but sometimes it’s fun to just
chill someplace away from them,” he said.
Luke laughed. “His grandmother is awesome, but she’s always asking
us to buy her wine behind his grandfather’s back. It gets awkward.”
“Your dad has a house here, Teague?” I asked.
He nodded, still not looking at me. “Yeah. I grew up spending summers
here, hanging out with these losers.”
“Teague lives in LA. His old man is some film muckety-muck,” Luke
said. “In fact, at the end of this summer, we’re thinking about driving cross-
country, then starting a landscaping business in LA.”
So these guys weren’t just party boys. They had plans.
Brant clapped his hands behind me, scaring the shit out of me. “C’mon.
Go get dressed. We have cheap beers to drink.”
I grabbed my duffel from the foyer and after a quick check on my
phone, now submerged in rice, I ran upstairs. Lake had told me to stay in
the room overlooking the garage because it was her natural inclination to
stick me in the shittiest part of the house. But when I passed what looked to
be the primary bedroom, with its views of the lovely backyard and the
ocean beyond, I dropped my bag there.
Fuck it. I was taking the good room.
I took a quick rinse, twisted my hair up into a bun, and pulled on the
only other dress I’d packed. Stepping into my platforms, I twirled in front
of the huge mirror in the corner of the room, and had to admit that my short,
ruffled dress was just right for a night out in a beach town. I made sure to
put on my cutest panties just in case the wind blew hard, and walked down
the stairs with a little bounce in my step.
The guys looked up when my platforms clomped onto the patio.
“Let’s get this party started!” I hollered.
Nobody moved.
“Oh my god. Is something wrong? Is it the car? What?” I demanded,
looking from one to the other.
“Um, well, wow,” Brant said after a moment. “You look… amazing.”
What? These guys were crazy, and if they thought they were getting into
my panties, they had another think coming.
I may have kissed Teague, but that was a fluke. It wouldn’t happen
again.
At least that’s what I told myself as I followed them to the service
entrance on the side of the house, straight to Luke’s Jeep Wrangler.
Teague held the front passenger door for me, and I gratefully snagged
the shotgun seat.
The engine rumbled under us as it came to life. “So. What does
everyone think of having the top open tonight?” Luke yelled over the
racket.
All eyes turned in my direction. “Sure. It’s a beautiful summer night.
Let’s do it,” I said, pulling my hair out of its bun.
A few minutes later, we were on our way to town, music blasting and
salt air blowing in our faces. In spite of the crap day I’d had, I hadn’t felt so
happy and carefree since… I didn’t know when. I certainly never had this
feeling in New York City. As much as it was the land of opportunity, the
frenetic pace was a weight that always felt an inch away from squashing me
to nothing, sending me back to the podunk town in Iowa I’d worked so hard
to get away from.
But with the sea in the air, and three hot new friends, I had all a girl
could ask for on a pretty summer evening.
Right?
The bouncing of the Jeep meant I had to hold on tight, and when I
reached to grab something, anything with my left hand, my fingers brushed
Luke’s. He continued to look ahead, concentrating on the summer resort
traffic, but his hand didn’t move away from mine. In fact, two of his fingers
intertwined with mine and his thumb stroked the bony part of my wrist.
While he was touching not much more than a couple square inches of my
skin, I tingled all over, my senses heightening as if in preparation for more.
I’d just met this guy—and his buddies—but there was something about
them. Like they were the missing puzzle piece that you find on the floor
under your chair after looking all over the place.
But that was silly. Right?
After parking, we noisily crunched over the parking lot that was,
according to the guys, made of crushed oyster shells. Teague stopped us
before we got to the door.
“Okay. Aspen. Heads up. This is a divey little bar, as you are about to
see. But it’s also the coolest bar in the Hamptons. Celebrities come here all
the time.”
If it was good enough for a celebrity, it was good enough for me.
We entered the dim space, and while it took a moment for my eyes to
adjust to the lack of light, a hand fell on the small of my back. I turned to
find Brant smiling down on me. My pulse jumped to full speed, and by the
time we reached the bar, I was nearly breathless. I slid onto the stool Teague
pulled out for me, grinning like a freaking idiot.
Luke appeared at my side holding a pitcher of beer and four plastic
cups. He poured for me first, then filled the others.
He raised his cup. “To summer,” he said, and then looked directly at me.
“And to beautiful women who swim naked. Or nearly naked.”
A blast of warmth heated my face. “Did… all you guys see me or
something?”
A guilty look passed over Brant’s face. “Of course we did. You think we
barge in on someone’s backyard without checking first to make sure no
one’s there?”
Teague stifled a laugh behind his beer cup. “They wanted to leave. I
convinced them you wouldn’t care if we crashed.”
The man was infuriating.
“So… when you pretended to be surprised to see me, that was just an
act?” Of course, I already knew the answer.
And they confirmed it, smiling and nodding.
Well for fuck’s sake.
“Ok. Fine,” I said, holding my head up. “That means I get to see you
guys skinny dipping. It’s only fair.”
 They looked at each other and shrugged, and I realized they couldn’t
give a shit if I saw them butt-naked.
So much for that.
I slipped off my stool and set my beer on the bar. “I’m going to pee.”
I wound my way through the bar’s growing crowd, amused that a place
with splintered floors, smelling of stale beer, and fisherman’s nets hanging
from the eaves could be considered a ‘celebrity hangout.’ But I did pass by
a booth in a dark corner where I could swear I saw Leonardo DiCaprio
smiling and talking with friends…
Guess everyone loves a dive bar every now and then.
I walked down the steep stairs to the bar’s basement, where the
restrooms were tucked away, and tiptoed down a narrow hallway dodging
beer kegs. I got to the ladies’, and pulling the door closed, took care of
business.
But when I was washing my hands, someone startled the shit out of me
by appearing right behind me in the sink mirror.
“Oh my god. You almost gave me a heart attack,” I said, turning to face
Luke. Must have wandered into the wrong restroom.
Or not.
Shit, he was tall. Even with my platforms on, I had to look up at him.
And now that we were close, closer than we’d been, I could see a cute little
scar on his chin.
I pressed my finger to it. “That from a childhood bike wreck?”
He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips. “See. I knew you were a
normal person who could relate to the stupid things we do as kids.”
I could also relate to the stupid things we did as adults, but my mouth
was too dry to say so.
He stepped closer, closing the space between us. The only thing behind
me was the bathroom sink. I couldn’t go anywhere.
Not that I wanted to.
“Um, ugh, Lu—”
I couldn’t spit out one coherent sentence. But I didn’t need to. Luke
took up the slack.
“Aspen, I couldn’t resist following you down here. I know that’s creepy
stalker behavior, but I had to have a moment alone with you.”
He ran his fingers through my hair, a tangled mess from the Jeep.
 “You’re the ideal summer girl, Aspen, with your little dress, wild hair,
and sunburned shoulders. You know what you do to me?”
“I, well, um—”
And because I couldn’t form a damn sentence, his lips landed on mine
while his giant hands gripped my waist, nearly encircling them, pulling me
closer. With my mouth pressed to his, I wildly looked around the ladies’
room to see if there was anyone else around, but it seemed we had the place
to ourselves. At least for the moment.
Even through his firm kiss, his lips were soft and exploring, and so
much better than my ex’s.
What had I been thinking with that jerk?
Satisfied we had the place to ourselves, I let my eyes fall closed,
permitting me to sink into Luke’s hard body. Pressed against me, there was
no doubt a bulge was forming in his pants, which was a nice match to the
wet spot now collecting on my panties.
And it didn’t go unnoticed by Luke. He slipped a hand under my short
dress, running a finger along the elastic leg of my panties until he reached
the inner crease of my thigh. He moved his finger back and forth there for a
moment, so close to my core, and yet so far that I tried to move myself into
his touch.
I wanted him to know how wet he was getting me.
But he wouldn’t let me.
Jesus, who was I?
With a fistful of my hair, he turned my head to the side and ran his lips
along the shell of my ear. “Fuck, baby, you know how much I like a smooth
pussy?” he murmured, running his finger over my shaved lips without
dipping between them.
A shiver plowed through me as he teased my flesh. I decided to take
action. What the hell. I’d never be back here. I’d never see these guys
again.
“Do you want to show me how much you like my shaved pussy, Luke?”
I said quietly.
He promptly released my hair. “Fuck yeah,” he growled.
I took his hand and led him to the last stall in the ladies’ room, and not a
moment too soon. A couple giggling girls flew in, followed by the click of
lipstick tubes opening and closing.
 Not to mention dishing. “Holy shit. Did you see those three guys up
there at the bar? And how about the tall one with the man bun. What I
wouldn’t do to suck his dick.”
“Seriously.” The other one sighed. “I’d even let him take my ass, he’s so
hot.”
I clamped my hand over my mouth, pressed up against Luke in the
small bathroom stall, and tried not to laugh. He, on the other hand, rolled
his eyes and shook his head.
“Is that what it’s like for you here? All summer, girls are just throwing
themselves at you?” I whispered.
“No. No it is not.”
Bullshit.
The gigglers left, and I slipped my panties down to my ankles and
stepped out of them, hanging them on the bathroom door hook. Then, I
lifted a leg to place my foot on the toilet seat, and raised my dress just
enough to give Luke a little show.
“Goddamn. That’s what I’m talking about,” he said, bending to get
closer.
 4

L UKE RAN ONE SWIPE OF HIS TONGUE THROUGH MY PUSSY LIPS WHEN
someone pounded on the bathroom door.
“Ugh,” he groaned. “Who the fuck is that?”
As if hearing a loud, annoyed male in a ladies’ room happened every
day.
“Luke, you fucker, I knew you were in there,” Teague said, rapping his
knuckles on the flimsy stall door. “’C’mon. I just got us invited to a party.
Put your dick back in your pants. Let’s go.”
I quickly rearranged myself by putting my foot back down, and reached
behind Luke for my panties. But just as I was retrieving them, he snatched
them out of my hand, bringing them to his nose for a deep inhale.
“These are mine, now,” he said after huffing them, and stuffed them into
his pocket.
Well then.
The stall door rattled again. “Dude. I have your car keys, and Brant and
I will leave without your asses,” Teague warned.
Luke’s hand flew to his front pocket. “Shit. Left my keys on the bar.”
He looked me up and down to make sure I was presentable and yanked
the door open.
I was a little disappointed at being interrupted, but a party was a party.
“You bastard,” Teague said, play-punching him in the arm.
Then he turned to me. “Our little Aspen. Having some fun on your
beach weekend are ya?” he asked, slinging an arm around my shoulder.
“Sure am, Teague. Having a great time. And where might we be going
now?”
 We returned to the bar where we found Brant. The pitcher of beer had
been drained, and I noticed someone had polished off my beer, as well.
Damn.
Teague threw some money on the bar, and clapped his hands together,
his wild mane of hair bouncing around his face. “We just got invited to a
party at probably the biggest, fanciest house in Southampton.”
“Fancier even than Lake’s?” I asked, as we headed for the car.
Teague waved his hand. “Hell yeah. Hers will look like a salt box in
comparison.”
This time, Brant took my hand, and led me to the backseat to sit with
him. But as I got in, I had a question.
“Guys. Can I go like this? I mean, I kind of look like a schlub, you
know?”
Brant looked me up and down, his gaze resting on where the hem of my
dress had slightly ridden up when I’d fastened my seat belt. “You look fine
as you are. But if you want to change, that’s fine, too.”
Teague looked over from the front seat as Luke pulled out of the lot. “I
bet your boss has some nice duds at her house.”
Of course. But did I dare wear anything of hers?
Would she even know?
“You’re right! Let’s go.”
I took risks! I could seize the day!
I was so not boring.
When we arrived back at Lake’s, I ran straight to her closet. I didn’t
expect much to be there since she didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I
figured she might have a few things.
And did she.
“Oh. My. God,” I breathed, pulling a creamy silk charmeuse dress out
of her closet and holding it up to myself.
The dress had spaghetti straps and was narrow through the bodice,
flaring out at the bottom. It might be a bit much for the beach, but when
else would I get to wear something like this?
Still holding the dress, I turned to face the mirror in the corner, and
found the three guys standing in the bedroom doorway.
Someone whistled long and low. I wasn’t sure who. Didn’t care either.
When I saw their expressions, I nearly melted with the admiring
approvals their handsome faces wore. If this dress worked for them, it
worked for me, too. And I didn’t even have it on yet.
I started to change but the guys were still standing there. Granted,
they’d already seen me in my panties, but I wasn’t even wearing those any
longer, thanks to Luke’s affinity for my undies.
I waved them away like annoying gnats. “You can leave me now. I have
to get ready.”
They groaned but left, pulling the door closed behind them.
I slipped into Lake’s dress and I had to say, I didn’t think I’d ever felt
more beautiful in my life. But I realized all I had to wear were my clunky
platforms.
Did Lake wear the same shoe size I did?
I ran back to her closet.
Holy shit, now I was going to wear her shoes.
But I was not in luck. Her shoes were way too small for me to wear. So,
I decided, fuck it. I pulled a pair of flip flops out of my duffel, and paired
them with the silk dress.
But not before I saw a tattered little notebook tucked onto an upper shelf
of the closet.
Shit. Was that what I thought it was?
I had to jump to reach it, but when I pulled it down, several loose pages
fluttered out.
Those loose pages?
My drawings. The ones I’d done for Lake. Which she said weren’t
usable.
I’d suspected she’d been stealing my designs. Did this prove it?
I couldn’t be one-hundred percent. But I was pretty close.
Fucking bitch.
In a flash of red-hot anger, I swept my arm through everything hanging
in her closet, pulling it all onto the floor. Then, for good measure, I stomped
on it with my flip flops.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Teague yelled, sticking his head
into the room. “C’mon. Time to go.”
Right. I had a party to get to. In Lake’s dress. And afterward, I’d come
back and sleep in Lake’s bed. And when I was ready, I’d drive Lake’s car
back to Manhattan.
If she had an issue with any of that? She could suck my dick.
“Coming, guys!” I sang and ran for the door.
Holy shit.
Would you look at that?
You are one gorgeous woman.
I rolled my eyes. “You guys are crazy. Let’s go.”
 5

T HE PARTY WAS JUST AS GLITTERY AS T EAGUE PROMISED , WITH BEAUTIFUL

people everywhere. They were well-dressed, attractive, smiling, and
seemed to have no end of fascinating things to talk about.
And I felt damn good in my dress and flip flops, accompanied by the
three best-looking guys there.
As soon as we arrived, Teague was shaking hands and slapping backs.
Luke turned to me. “I’m off to find something to drink. You guys want
anything?”
“Aspen, a drink?” Brant asked.
“Sure,” I said slowly, looking around the room. “I’ll have a glass of…
that pink champagne everyone has,” I said, pointing.
He nodded and turned to Brant.
“The usual for me, man. Just a beer.”
I turned to Brant, happy to have a solo moment with the clean-cut one
of the trio. “So, you’ve lived here all your life?”
He laughed and looked down at his shoes for a moment, like he was
embarrassed. “I can hardly believe it myself. But it’s not a bad place.
Beautiful, no matter what the season, even in the middle of winter with
wicked storms blowing in. I don’t think I could ever live far from the
ocean,” he said, looking out our host’s giant living room window to the
beach, where all you could see in the dark was the white foam of the waves
breaking on the beach.
It was hard to look away, the rhythm of the moving water so
mesmerizing. “If you can believe it, I’d never even seen the ocean before I
moved to New York. As soon as I got here, I took the train to the Jersey
shore to see if the Atlantic was everything I’d heard.”
He looked down at me, his dark eyes holding mine, and flicked a stray
piece of hair out of my face. “And?”
I thought back to that day, and how I’d decided I could never go back to
the Midwest for any reason other than to visit.
“I was… speechless. Honestly. I couldn’t believe it. Water for as far as
you can see. You hear people talk about the ocean. But in person it’s
completely different.”
He smiled and a dimple I’d not noticed before popped into view. Like
he needed to be better-looking.
“Hey, want to see something else really amazing?” he asked.
I shrugged. “More amazing than this? You’ve got me curious.”
He held out his hand and after a moment’s hesitation, I took it. Why
not?
I followed him as he wove through the crowd, stopping every now and
then to say hello to someone, until we reached a door off the kitchen that
looked like it led to a basement.
“Is this where you take me to the bowels of the house and lock me up
for all eternity?” I laughed.
He squeezed my hand. “Something like that.”
He opened the door and reached to turn a light on. When I joined him
on the other side, I saw we were not descending into some nasty old
basement. No, it was more of a spa, if I could name it anything, and at the
bottom of the stairs was a beautiful, indoor, blue-green swimming pool
illuminated by a couple dim, overhead lights.
“Oh my god. Look at this,” I said, making a three-hundred-sixty-degree
turn to take it all in.
“My old man worked on this house,” Brant said, taking me through the
indoor pool room.
“Really? Your dad works on houses?” I asked.
“Yeah. Well, he doesn’t just work on houses. He builds them.”
I looked up at him. “So are you saying you live in a house like this?”
He laughed modestly. “No. Our house is more like… your boss’s
house.”
Holy shit.
 “Then why do you guys swim over there? You have your own pools,” I
said.
He led me to a ledge of rocks that created a small waterfall and sat me
down. “We like to… change things up every now and then.”
Brant crouched before me, sliding my dress above my ankles, and
pulled off one of my flip flops. Running his fingers up the side of my calf,
his touch was so light it tickled, and I had to squirm to remain still.
How could I have the same chemistry with this man, as I did with Luke
and Teague? My head was spinning. It didn’t seem right, and yet I couldn’t
name a single thing wrong with it.
Brant slipped off my other flip flop, and slipping his hands under my
dress, pushed the soft fabric to my knees. Once they were bare, he put his
hands on each and slowly parted them, finally breaking eye contact to find
that I wasn’t wearing panties.
“Look at that,” he murmured in a low, growly voice. “What a pretty
pussy we have here.”
The night air whispered across flesh that was usually covered up and
hidden away. It was amazing, and even more so when Brant ran a finger
through my wet folds, stopping to dip inside me, and then run the moisture
back up to my clit, which he circled with his thumb.
I leaned back onto hard rocks, barely registering any discomfort, just
reveling in being with a gorgeous man in an amazing house, wearing one of
my boss’s expensive silk dresses.
If I paused long enough to think about it all, I’d run out of there, scared
shitless.
So, I didn’t.
Next I knew, Brant had pushed my legs all the way open and buried his
face between my legs, running his tongue up and down my aching pussy,
pausing to zero in on my clit, and then licking me top to bottom again.
Without thinking about it, I reached for his head and ran my nails over
his scalp, pulling him closer.
“Oh fuck, that feels nice,” I moaned.
When he slipped one, and then two fingers inside me, I bucked my hips
forward for more. I wanted it deeper, and I wanted it harder.
And I wanted it now.
“Oh god, I’m coming,” I cried, clamping my hand over my mouth to
keep my screams from reaching the party.
 “Oh yeah, baby, come on my hand,” Brant said, watching me.
I gripped his shoulder with my one free hand and squeezed, digging my
nails in so hard I knew there’d be marks later. But I needed some way to
bleed off the energy exploding out of my every pore.
“Oh god stop, Brant, stop. I need a break,” I gasped, overcome by
sensation.
He got to his feet and began to open his shorts. But I stopped him, and
took over.
“Let me,” I said, swatting his hands away.
When Brant’s shorts were unzipped, they fell to the floor with a thud.
He whipped his T-shirt off over his head and there he stood, gloriously and
heart-breakingly naked and beautiful. If I hadn’t been so ready to suck his
cock, I might have looked at him for a moment longer, my eyes filling with
tears.
But I was not feeling patient.
I fisted his cock lightly, running my palm from root to tip, over his head,
and back down again. Tilting my head up, I found him looking down at me
with a small smile. I smiled back, and he ran his fingers along my jaw
before taking the back of my head and pulling my head down on him.
He was long and thick, but I took as much of him as I could before he
bumped the back of my throat. I continued to hold him at his base, and
moved my tongue and lips over him, slowly picking up speed.
“Play with yourself, baby. Play with that pussy using your free hand,”
he demanded.
I slipped my fingers between the folds Brant had just had his face
between, still puffy and dripping with my excitement. I worked myself at
the same pace I worked him, wondering if I could bring us both off at the
same time.
It turned out I almost could.
Brant began to thrust his hips into my face. He swelled inside my mouth
one last time, spurting his load until I couldn’t take any more and let it run
down my chin. When he slowed, a thunderbolt struck me and I stiffened,
pushing him out of my mouth so I could scream through my own explosion.
He took me by the hand and we collapsed on a lounge chair together,
trying to catch our breath, when from the direction of the stairs came a slow
applause.
What? Who the hell was clapping?
 I weakly lifted my head to see Teague standing there, smiling broadly.
Of course it was Teague.
“Fucking hot, you two. That was quite a show,” he said.
Brant chuckled. “Sucks to be you, dude.”
Teague sauntered over in our direction, studying my now-rumpled dress
and smeared make up. “Oh, I don’t know. Does our little Aspen have any
gas left in her tank?” he asked, putting his fingers on either side of my chin
and turning my head in his direction.
“Depends on where you wanna go, Teague,” I said, lifting my chin.
He brought me to my feet and turned me to face Brant. “Bend forward,
honey. Brace your hands on Brant’s knees.”
Still buzzing from my orgasm of only a few minutes before, I was
happy to oblige, and when I did, Teague eased my feet back so I was bent at
a ninety-degree angle, ass up in the air. He lifted my dress to my waist, and
ran his fingers through my slick folds.
“Got her nice and ready for me, didn’t you, Brant?” he rasped.
Oh, what his dirty talk did to me.
“Hey, man. I aim to please.”
Teague’s fingers slowly parted my pussy lips and between them, the
head of his cock slipped back and forth. “You okay, baby? You ready for
me?” he asked.
I might have just come from my own hand, but I wanted to come again.
And hard.
“Please, Teague. Please fuck me,” I begged.
In one slick movement, he was buried inside me, gripping my ass so
hard I knew there’d be marks later, but with enough purchase to drive in
and out of me with a fury that was almost scary.
Brant, in front of me, put his hands on either side of my face, his gaze
glued to mine as I started coming again. “You’re so beautiful, baby. Let me
see you come, c’mon, come again all over Teague’s cock,” he whispered so
only I could hear it.
This time, my orgasm was different, starting at my core and firing to the
lengths of my limbs like an out-of-control shockwave. I shook, barely able
to hold myself up without the support of both guys, and when an orgasm
broke, it was like being hit by a truck, battering and bruising me until I was
nothing like I had been before our tryst.
 Seriously. By the time Teague exploded inside me, I couldn’t see, hear,
or speak. I could only feel.
And I felt fucking great.
 6

B UT I WASN ’ T TOO OUT OF IT TO HEAR FOOTSTEPS POUNDING DOWN THE

stairs toward the indoor pool, where Teague and Brant had just finished
with me.
Or should I say, I’d finished with them?
“Guys, guys,” Luke hollered. He stopped short when he saw us in
various stages of undress, shook his head, and laughed. “Jesus. Guys, get
your shit together. A fight broke out and the cops are on their way.”
I lifted my head. “So? We haven’t done anything wrong? Why should
we leave?”
Teague jumped up and tucked himself back into his shorts then ran his
fingers through his hair. “You don’t understand. When a party has this many
people, and if they want to question everyone, you could get stuck here till
sunrise.”
Okay then.
Luke pulled me to my feet while Brant tossed me my flip flops. I
straightened my dress out as best I could, and we headed for the door that
led out to the beach rather than going back through the house.
But Teague stopped. “Hold on. I just thought of something.”
Brant sighed in exasperation. “Teague, man, c’mon. Let’s go.”
But Teague was already halfway up the stairs. When he reached the top,
he bellowed at full volume. “Hey, everyone, party will continue at the house
down the road with the gray shingles. Meet us there!”
Then he bolted back down the stairs toward us and ran out the back
door.
Oh my god.
 Please tell me I’d just misheard him.
Did he just invite the entire party back to Lake’s house? My boss’s
house? That I was supposed to be departing from on the 8am bus, which
would later in the day have a private showing by a real estate agent?
No. How silly. Surely he was referring to a different house. With gray
shaker shingles. Just down the road.
I ran out the door after him and caught him by the shoulder, whipping
him around with all my strength. When he turned and realized I was the one
who’d done it, he was as surprised as I was by my fury.
“Are you fucking kidding?” I screamed.
It didn’t matter that he’d just fucked my brains out and given me so
many orgasms I’d lost count.
He was messing with my livelihood. And I couldn’t have that.
Especially since I was capable of fucking up quite nicely on my own.
But he wasn’t discouraged. Of course not. Because he was Teague, the
good-looking guy who charmed his way into any situation. Including my
panties.
He grabbed my hand. “Aspen, it will be fine. These are nice, respectable
people. And Brant and Luke will clean up in the morning.”
That earned him a smack in the back of the head at Luke’s hand.
I looked at him and Brant. Surely they had more common sense than
their friend. But they didn’t back me up. Not exactly.
“Aspen is now realizing what a dick Teague is,” Brant said. “But look.
People are pouring out of the party and into their cars. I think we’d better
get to the house before they do.”
I looked at the headlights of Porsches, Audis, and one or two Hummers,
all coming to life and peeling away from the lawns they’d parked all over.
To head to Lake’s.
“All right. Let’s go,” I said, breaking into a run.
Thank god I’d worn my flip flops.
We arrived at Lake’s to find several guys at the front door holding cases
of beer and bottles of booze. I hesitantly opened the door, because they
looked like they wouldn’t hesitate to find a way inside the house anyway,
and stepped aside as people streamed in. In the shuffle, I got separated from
the guys, so I pulled a chair to block the entrance to the upstairs of the
house, and opened the back door in the hope that people would just swarm
the deck and the pool.
 “This way, people,” I hollered, pointing to the back of the house.
And it worked.
Thank god.
“It’ll be fine, Aspen,” Luke said in my ear.
“Oh. Where did you come from?”
He pointed across the room. “I was over there, watching you take
charge,” he said, running a finger down the front of my rumpled dress,
stopping to tease my erect nipple.
I casually placed a hand on the credenza next to me so he wouldn’t see
me wobble. But it didn’t work. He knew he had me.
The bastard.
“I was kind of pissed that we were interrupted in the restroom, and then
I found you with Brant and Teague,” he said quietly, continuing to rub my
nipple through my silky dress with his rough thumb.
I was trying to pay attention to the party around me since it was being
held in a house I was essentially responsible for, at least for a few more
hours.
Shit, I’d leave right now if the car were ready. Say I had no idea what
happened.
They must have broken in. I don’t know a thing. Sorry!
But I couldn’t do that, not only because I had to wait for Lake’s BMW
to be fixed, but also because Luke’s touch was drawing me in, like a fly to a
spider’s web. There was no escape.
Not that I wanted one.
Fuck it. Everyone else was having fun. Why not me.
I looked down at Luke’s agonizing touch, then back up at him, coyly
batting my eyelashes. “Sorry ’bout that, Luke. I didn’t forget about you. I
just got kind of… distracted,” I cooed, running my flat palm up his T-shirt
and over his rocky chest.
He clearly did a lot more than clean pools to maintain a body like his.
I looked behind him, to the backyard, where people, both clothed and
unclothed, were splashing around in Lake’s pool.
“I have an idea,” I whispered in his ear.
I took his hand and let him out the back door and to the little pool house
I’d spotted earlier in the day. It looked like a cross between a fancy shed
and a guest cottage. We wove between the partiers, many of whom were in
various stages of undress, and slipped into the small building.
 I led him over to a colorful sofa, where I lifted what was left of Lake’s
silk dress over my head, and tossed it aside. There I sat, completely nude,
with Luke just before me. I parted my thighs slightly so he could stand
between them, and ran my hands up over my breasts, my gaze locked to his.
He growled lightly as his hands moved to his fly.
“Your T-shirt,” I said, gesturing with my chin. I kept playing with my
tits as he slowly grabbed opposite corners of his shirt, lifting it over his
head, and dropping it onto the pile with my dress.
I’d seen him shirtless earlier in the day, but now that I was close up, I
could really appreciate his bulky pecs, and the hollow running down the
center of his abdomen in between the mountains of his six-pack muscles. I
took my hands from my own chest, and ran them over his, warm and
smooth and strong.
He tackled his fly and in moments his shorts and boxers were puddled
around his feet. His hard cock hung heavy and low, bouncing lightly as if
trying to grab my attention.
And grab my attention, it did.
I ran my fingers up his velvety shaft until I reached his cockhead,
bulbous in my fist. A drop of precum wet my hand, which I brought up to
my mouth to taste.
Luke groaned with approval, and with a hand on either side of my head,
wove his fingers into my hair. Holding fistfuls in each, he pulled me until
his erection bounced against my lips.
I took hold of him at the root of his dick and ran my tongue around his
head and then its ridge, enjoying the way he jolted when I closed my mouth
over him.
“God, baby, yes, suck me like that. Good girl. Oh that’s so fucking
good,” he said in a hoarse whisper. He let go of my hair when I took him as
deeply as I could, his hands wandering to my breasts, now sensitive and
begging for attention.
Even though he was almost to the back of my throat, I was still holding
a good bit of him in my hand. My other hand took hold of his balls. He
started to shake, pumping his hips into my face as I took him deeper, when I
heard a sound at the door.
But I didn’t care. He was about to come, and I wanted to swallow every
last bit of what he had to give me. And a moment later, after swelling one
more time, his hot, salty cum flooded my mouth, running down my chin
and onto my breasts when I couldn’t take any more.
Someone plopped onto the sofa right next to me and while I was still
licking Luke clean, I glanced over to see him stroking his erection through
the open fly of his shorts.
“Oh my. Look at Brant’s hard cock,” I teased when Luke stepped away.
“And look at you, my little beach baby,” he growled, reaching between
my legs with one hand and pulling me in for a kiss with his other.
His lips were hot and sensuous, and as soon as his fingers dipped into
my wet pussy, he pulled them out and pressed one against my lips. “Taste
yourself, baby. There you go,” he said as I eagerly sucked.
He took his finger back and pushed his shorts out of the way. “Since
you’re so wet, baby, come on over here. I’m thinking you’d like to sit on
my dick.”
As I stood, Teague joined us and closed the pool house door. Now I had
all three guys.
I straddled Brant’s lap with one knee on either side of his hips, and
rubbed my pussy along his long, thick cock.
“Fuckin A,” he mumbled, his eyes closing, his head falling back onto
the sofa.
“Yeah, you’re right. I want your dick.”
I placed a hand on each of his shoulders and began to lower myself. I
stopped for a moment to tease his cockhead, and shouted from the delicious
sensation when he seized my hips and pulled me all the way down,
impaling me.
My head dropped into the crook of his neck at suddenly being so full of
the long, thick cock of a gorgeous strong man. And to top it off, two of his
equally handsome friends were only inches away, watching with admiration
as I slowly slid up and down.
I’d never had a threesome, never mind a foursome, but so far I could
report it was pretty fucking hot. It was like a roller coaster ride at a theme
park. You knew you were in for something thrilling, but you never knew
what lay around each corner. Thrills and surprises abounded, and you
laughed and screamed through all of them.
And when I say these guys were full of surprises, I was not
exaggerating. As I straddled Brant, my entire body humming as my pussy
engulfed and then released him, a warm breath fell on the back of my neck.
It was followed by a brush of soft lips, which traveled down my shoulders
to my spine. Brant’s hands were already gripping my waist, but when a new
set of hands cupped my ass cheeks and parted them, I didn’t have the
wherewithal to wonder what was next.
I was going with it.
These men could do whatever they wanted with me. They made me feel
like a million bucks, and I wanted nothing more than to do the same for
them. I was driven by a need to please and be pleased, and no amount of
rational thinking was going to get in my way, even if it was charging
through my brain a thousand miles per hour.
Fuck everybody and everything else in the world. I was living in that
very moment, and felt like I’d been born again. I could do anything. I was
sexy, smart, and capable of handling my shit.
Teague—I knew it was Teague because I’d reached back and fingered
his mop of hair—ran his tongue over my asshole, inches from where
Brant’s hard dick impaled me. I didn’t know guys did stuff that got them so,
um… close to each other, but it didn’t seem to slow anyone down.
And for that, I was grateful as fuck, because it was the best feeling ever.
Seriously. I’d had a couple guys hint around at backdoor play, but I had no
trust that they’d bother to make it feel good.
Teague—like his friends—was clearly taking things to a completely
new level.
 7

W ITH A HAND ON MY LOWER BACK , T EAGUE SLOWED MY BOUNCING ON

Brant’s dick. He then pressed something small but hard against my asshole,
and when it popped into my bum, I recognized it as his thumb. He gradually
entered me with it, and while it felt strange for a moment, it quickly turned
into a crazy, intense sensation that heightened the feeling of the big dick in
my pussy.
What would it feel like to have more than just a thumb back there?
Would it hurt? Or feel so good I’d lose my mind?
I was willing to find out.
“Yeah, dude, that’s it,” Luke growled from behind me. “Stretch that
little asshole.”
His filthy, dirty talk and raspy voice unleashed a guttural cry from my
throat. I looked over my shoulder at Teague and Luke watching me get
fucked while my asshole was prepared, and I swear I’d never seen anything
more desireable.
“Give me more, Teague,” I breathed, raising my ass as best I could
while keeping Brant inside me.
“You heard the lady,” Brant said between groans. “Guess my dick is just
not enough.”
I play-slapped him while giving him a passionate kiss to show him he
was wrong. “It’s perfect. But I’m feeling greedy,” I laughed.
Behind me, Teague spat, and next I knew, something much bigger than
his thumb was pressed to my asshole. Brant slowed our movements and
Luke grabbed a fistful of my hair, turning me to kiss him. His tongue
aggressively invaded my mouth just as Teague pushed harder, until the head
of his dick was in my behind.
Holy fuck. There was no describing the sensation of having something
in both my pussy and ass, while being passionately kissed. I moaned into
Luke’s mouth and he pulled back, smiling.
“You like it, baby?” he asked.
My eyes fell closed. All I could do was nod.
Teague continued holding my cheeks open and with his thumbs,
massaged the area around my asshole as if trying to get me to relax. I guess
it worked, because he inched farther inside me until I exploded in a violent
orgasm that took all three guys to restrain me.
My head bucked and my shoulders shook while I pushed back and forth
on both Brant and Teague, taking each of them as deeply as I could. I
pounded the sofa back with my fists and screamed until I was hoarse. One
orgasm after another lit me on fire, and the only thing that snapped me out
of it was the screaming and shouting that suddenly arose in Lake’s
backyard.
“What the hell is that?” one of the guys mumbled as we disentangled
ourselves.
We watched Luke run to the door of the pool house. When he pulled it
open, his eyes widened.
“Hate to tell you guys, but the cops are here,” he said, starting to close
the door.
But before he could, one of them stuck a huge flashlight against the
doorjamb, blocking it from closing. Teague, Brant, and I scrambled to pull
ourselves back together, but I felt like I was swimming through mud. The
guys saw me struggling, and Teague threw me a beach towel draped over a
folded lawn chair. I wrapped myself just as a cop stuck his head inside.
“Okay, guys, party’s over,” he said, ignoring the fact that what we’d just
been doing was painfully obvious. “Get yourselves dressed and get out
here.”
I scooped what was left of Lake’s silk dress off the pool house floor and
pulled it over my head. I had to wear something, and a beach towel wasn’t
going to cut it. And as I did, I pushed aside a small curtain and saw the yard
swarming with people running in all directions like they’d committed a
serious crime and were about to go to prison for life.
 I had to keep from laughing out loud. I guess that’s what an overload of
orgasms will do to you.
One skinny dipping guy had even picked up his clothes without
bothering to dress before running off, his butt cheeks jiggling as he
frantically ran in one direction and then another.
We left the pool house and followed the cop who was waiting for us on
the patio.
“You all are trespassing. You’re going to have to leave,” he said in a
bored voice.
I guess I’d be bored too, policing in a town where the worst crime was
crashing pool parties. He was probably pissed he hadn’t been invited.
“Oh, I’m supposed to be here. This is my boss’s house,” I said, looking
at the wet footprints that had been tracked from the pool and onto the floors.
That should mop up easily. Right?
“Do you have any proof of that?”
“C’mon Dave,” Brant said, “we can vouch for her. She works for Lake
LaRenne.”
My head whipped in his direction. “You know this policeman?”
He nodded. “Of course. We graduated high school together.”
Teague dropped a casual arm around my shoulder. “It’s a small town,
Aspen. Those of us who’ve spent any length of time here know pretty much
everyone.”
“Yeah,” the cop said, putting his hands on his hips and looking over the
guys. “I know all these guys. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were the
ones to talk you into having a big party in a place where you probably
weren’t supposed to.”
“Oh, um, well, yeah…” I managed to say.
I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.
He took a step closer and looked down on me. “Am I right? That you
did not have your boss’s permission to throw a party here? Miss, I am
supposed to notify the homeowner when something like this happens.”
My stomach sank. Why did I keep fucking up? On top of everything, I
was wearing what I was sure was an ungodly expensive dress that was now
covered in stains and holes, and Lake’s floor was covered in muddy, grassy
footprints.
I opened my mouth again, but thankfully, before I said something to get
myself in even more trouble, Luke spoke up.
 “Dave, can you help us out just this once?” he said. “Forget this ever
happened?”
“Oh yes, that would be great,” I babbled, “you see, my boss is selling
and an agent is holding some private showings tomorrow—”
Dave scoffed. “This place is a mess. But I’ll leave you guys to it. Just no
more noise for tonight. We’re getting tired of these calls, and the season is
just barely underway.”
Brant extended his hand. “Thanks, Dave. See you at softball Wednesday
night.”
As soon as the cop was gone, I turned to Brant. “You play softball with
this guy? Are you serious?”
“Sure do,” he said.
I plopped onto a lounge chair. “Oh my god, I am tired.”
Luke grabbed the spot at the end of my chair. “Guess we wore you out,
huh?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “You know it,” I said, squirming a little in my
seat. But I couldn’t think about that stuff now. I had to be responsible again.
“Guys, I am totally stressing about cleaning this place up. I’m supposed to
be out of here at 8 am.”
Brant started picking up empty beer cans. “Aspen, you know that’s not
gonna happen. For one, you gotta wait for Lake’s car.”
I started to bury my face in my hands, overwhelmed.
But Luke pulled me to my feet. “Look. Let’s all get some sleep. We’ll
get up early, and start cleaning. It’s really not so bad.”
Ugh. I hoped to have his casual clarity after a few hours’ sleep.
“Sounds like you guys have done this before,” I said.
They looked at each other with sly smiles.
Because, of course. Gorgeous, socially-blessed guys like this got away
with everything.
Someone like me, from bumfuck Iowa, of average looks, and a crappy
going-nowhere job in overpriced Manhattan?
Not so much.
Hell, if I jaywalked, I’d probably get a freaking ticket. Maybe even
imprisoned for life.
I headed for the house and once inside, breathed a sigh of relief that it
wouldn’t take much more than a wet mop and a little scrubbing to clean the
floor.
 Thank god the party crashers had headed straight for the backyard. Not
that it was without damage. But, as I dragged myself up the stairs, I decided
the guys would have to take on that piece. I had no idea how to clean vomit
off a pool deck, extract a lacy pair of thong panties from the pool filter, or
even out the broken branches on the bush where two people had been
making out.
In my thinking, if they could get a cop off my ass, they could do just
about anything. And that’s what I was counting on.
I turned to see the guys hanging out downstairs and it occurred to me to
wonder where they were going to sleep. After what we’d all just done, it
seemed like spending the night together was what would follow, like it did
after most hook-ups. But since I’d arrived in Southampton, what else about
my life had been predictable or normal?
“What are you doing?” I asked, pausing halfway up the stairs.
I won’t lie. I was kind of hoping one or all of them wanted to snuggle
with me overnight. It would be so nice to have some warm, strong arms
around me. On the other hand, I couldn’t expect all three guys to cram into
one bed with me. That would just be greedy.
Or not.
Uncharacteristically, Teague shuffled his feet and looked around the
room. I’d never seen him express even a tiny bit of uncertainty.
Interesting.
“Well, um,” he started, “I guess we were waiting for an invitation.”
What?
As if sharing a bed overnight were more intimate than how they’d all
fucked me minutes earlier.
But his words warmed me.
I stood there on the stairs with the three of them looking back at me,
waiting, and I realized I was somehow different than when I’d arrived that
morning.
How change could take place that fast was beyond me, but I wasn’t
looking a gift horse in the mouth. It was as if the moment I’d decided to say
to hell with it and take Lake’s car to the Hampton’s, without even knowing
it, I’d altered the trajectory of my life. I’d had no idea at the time, but
thinking back just a few hours, that was a balls-out move for me. I’d needed
to shake shit up.
And I did.
 I was in the middle of something I couldn’t identify, but it was exciting.
Scary as fuck, but exciting.
I just had to get through it with my head on straight.
While these thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant, I knew I
was on the brink of something big. Something that was going to allow me
to grab life by the balls without shame or embarrassment.
Like Teague, Luke, and Brant did.
I pulled my shoulders back and puffed out my chest, just like the guys
did when they showed the world they could do fucking anything. “One of
you may join me, or all of you may. I will let you decide.”
I headed up the stairs, leaving three guys behind me, grinning wildly.
 8

I DIDN ’ T KNOW WHETHER THEY FLIPPED A COIN , DREW STRAWS , OR PLAYED

Rock Paper Scissors, but before I was even under the covers in Lake’s
luxurious bedroom, Teague had bounded up the stairs, stripped, jumped in
bed, and propped his head up on a pillow, smiling.
And it felt damn good.
I pulled the fluffy down comforter up to my chin.
“I’m not really tired,” Teague said, flipping onto his side to face me.
“No?”
I guess I was kind of wound up, myself.
Seriously, how does one just drop off to sleep after a day like I’d had?
“Where did Brant and Luke go?” I asked.
“I think they crashed on lounge chairs out back. They like that sort of
thing,” he said.
It was funny to see these guys, how carefree and playful they were, even
though they were the same age as me. Had our lives collided for a reason?
“What’s your boss like?” Teague asked, running a soft finger down my
arm.
I sighed. She wasn’t hard to describe. Not at all. Which actually made it
tricky to talk about her without sounding like a massive cliché. But she was
a cliché. “Typical power bitch,” I said. “Sucks up to those with money and
power, like her investors, and shits on people below her, like me. She’s so
lacking insight she has no idea how insulting she is, nor how badly she
makes herself look. She’s like a beautiful piece of fruit that, when you bite
into it, is rotten on the inside.”
 He let out a low whistle and was silent for a moment. “Sounds like a
real winner.”
“I know. The worst of it is, she steals my designs after telling me
they’re no good.”
I started dozing off, sad that my last waking thought of the night was
about the very person I wanted to forget.
Teague scoffed. “Fuck that bitch. I’m glad we’re chilling in her house.
I’ve got an idea.”
I gasped, startling back to wakefulness. “Huh?”
“Can you prove she stole your stuff?” Teague asked.
I’d asked myself this a million times. Even though I’d found her
notebook in the closet, I wasn’t so sure. And if I could, what would I do
with the information? Who’d believe me over her?
And where was Teague going with this? He had a wealthy father and a
nice home to live in on both coasts. He could afford to burn bridges. Put
people in their places.
Me? Not so much.
I was beholden to someone who could take advantage of me pretty
much any way she wanted, short of breaking the law.
But not breaking my spirit.
“Yeah, I probably could, but who would I prove it to? Who’s gonna take
my word over hers? She’s well-connected. Everyone loves her. I’m just one
of her peons.”
“Did you say… you were here to pick up a laptop she’d left behind?” he
asked, his finger now running down my bare breast.
I gasped, Teague’s touch sending me back to a place—one I wished I
could never leave.
“Y… yeah, her laptop is downstairs. But I’m sure it’s password
protected. It’s not like we could get into it or something.”
Teague scoffed. “We’ll see about that,” he said, suddenly moving.
He threw the covers off us both and pushed my legs up to my shoulders.
In the small bit of moonlight coming into the room, I watched his eyes
travel hungrily over my body, stopping at my most private parts. Which, of
course, he’d already licked, sucked, and fucked.
He ran two fingers between my pussy lips and my head sank back into
the pillow.
Oh god.
 While he rendered me helpless, he continued with his train of thought,
which I could barely follow. “I know a lot of people, Aspen. All us guys do.
We’ll check it out tomorrow.”
Thank god, because he’d positioned his cock right at the opening to my
pussy, and even though I’d just been thoroughly fucked, all I could think
about was how I wanted it again.
And as if he could read my mind, he plunged deep inside me, until his
pelvis pressed against my clit and his balls banged my ass.
But this time it was different. Different from the first party we’d
attended, and different from the pool house.
This time, he placed his hands on either side of my face, and as he
moved his hips, his thick cock stroking my insides, he looked directly into
my eyes.
“Beautiful. You are beautiful,” he breathed.
His gaze was so painfully intimate that for a moment I had to close my
eyes. I was afraid of losing myself, of getting absorbed into some weird
vortex of passion I couldn’t return from. But as his fingers wove into my
hair, he pressed his lips to mine.
We moved together as we kissed and with a few more strokes, my
umpteenth orgasm for the day lit me like a firecracker. I arched into him,
gasping, pulling on his ass for more. I was insatiable, and so, apparently,
was he.
When he was finally ready to explode, he pulled out and came all over
my chest and stomach. I opened my eyes to see if he was still looking at
me.
He was.
It was like he knew what I wanted. He’d taken my mind off the negative
thoughts nagging at it and now I could sleep in peace. I’d worry about all
the shit on my mind tomorrow, when I woke up.
And that tomorrow came way too fast, when I heard a car crunch into
the circular driveway in front of Lake’s house.
I bolted up in bed to look out the window, then pulled on my one dress
that hadn’t been destroyed. I opened the back window and hissed until Luke
and Brant stirred on their lounge chairs.
“Guys,” I called quietly. “The agent’s here. Go hide.”
They sat up, squinting at me in the morning sun, and in seconds, they
dashed into the pool house.
 I turned to Teague. “Wait here and don’t make a sound. I’ll get rid of
her.”
I raced down the stairs and pulled the door open just as the agent was
pushing her key into the lock.
Her eyes widened, and she jumped back. “Oh my,” she gasped.
I smoothed a hand over my hair when I saw her looking me up and
down. “Hi, I’m so sorry for startling you. I’m Aspen, Lake’s assistant.”
She shifted, trying to look past me into the house.
“Yeah, the place is a bit of a mess,” I said, glancing over my shoulder
but still not letting her enter.
“Um, I was told you were leaving early this morning, and that the house
would be empty and ready to go,” she said as a half-question, half-
statement.
I nodded cheerfully. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I would be
gone by now except the house needed cleaning. You see, it seems like some
people, probably kids, broke in and had a party. I’ve been cleaning up since
I arrived. I have a bit more to do so figured I’d stay as long as I needed to. I
should have called you. I’m so sorry I didn’t,” I said, rolling my eyes at my
own stupidity.
I laughed to lighten the moment, but also planted my hands on my hips
to show I was serious about getting the situation under control.
She tried to look past me again, so I gave her a couple more inches of
view into the living room while still blocking her.
“There’s no serious damage, thank goodness. Just trash and some basic
cleaning that a little elbow grease will take care of.”
She frowned. “Well, I was supposed to show the house today. When do
you think it will be ready? Lake is really eager to sell.”
I nodded like I was completely in the loop. “I know. She really is. I feel
so badly that someone did this to her. Just awful. But I’ll tell you, I am
confident I can finish the job today. Could you maybe come back tomorrow
with your clients? Would they be okay with that?”
She pressed her lips together, thinking. Then, she glanced at her watch,
and pulled out her phone. “Let me make a couple calls, okay?” she asked,
stepping back from the door.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been polite to invite her in
while she made her calls but I didn’t want her too close to the scene of the
crime.
 “I’ll give you some privacy here,” I said cheerfully, and I closed the
front door.
I glanced through the glass in the door and saw her break into a smile as
she undoubtedly got her rich and important client on the phone. As she
schmoozed, I ran to the kitchen. Rustling under the sink, I pulled out yellow
kitchen gloves, a large sponge, and a bottle of Spic ’n Span. Just as she
finished her calls, I returned to the front door, my cleaning supplies in hand.
“All good?” I asked with a bright smile.
She nodded slowly, still looking a bit confused. “Um, yes. I can bring
them all by tomorrow. Please make sure the house is in perfect shape
though, won’t you?”
I nodded fervently. “Oh my god, of course. I want Lake’s house to sell
fast just like you do!”
I looked at the agent, who had dollar signs in her eyes. I, on the other
hand, didn’t get a damn thing whether the house sold or not.
Well, I guess I got to keep my job.
“So, we’ll see you tomorrow?” I chirped.
She shrugged. “Yes, you will.
I sank against the front door after I closed it, listening carefully for the
crunch of the agent’s shoes on the gravel, and for her car to pull away. It
wasn’t until she was gone that I could breathe easily again.
“Guys,” I hollered, watching Teague come down the stairs and Brant
and Luke return from the pool house.
“I heard the whole thing. The house was broken into! That’s classic!
Good job, baby.” Teague laughed.
“No way,” Brant said, joining us in the kitchen. “Is that what you told
the agent?” he asked, shaking his head.
I shrugged. “Well, those people here last night were party crashers,
more or less. And the cop said we were trespassing. So does that count as
breaking in?”
Luke took the cleaning supplies from me. “It doesn’t matter. What does,
is that we have some time to chill and enjoy the pool if we want. She’s not
coming back until tomorrow and the place will be perfect by then.”
Teague ran a finger down my spine, and I shivered even though the
kitchen was warm from the morning sun. “And now we can have some fun.
If you’re up for it?” he asked.
I looked from one guy to the next.
 They were all so damn good-looking, and sure as hell had been showing
me the time of my life. It could be the last day I’d spend with them, after
which I might never see them again.
Even though I’d known them barely twenty-four hours, a pang of
sadness washed through me. It was weird to think I’d miss something I’d
never really had. I mean, how the hell did that work?
It was stupid. We’d have our last bit of fun, clean up the house, and I’d
head back to Manhattan with Lake’s car repaired. No one would ever know
what had gone down except me and the guys. Lake’s house would be sold,
she’d forget about Southampton, and Southampton would forget about her.
I’d never forget, though. That was for damn sure.
I pulled my dress over my head, dropping it to the kitchen floor, where I
stood naked. “Last one in the pool has to go pick up lunch,” I screamed,
then ran toward the pool, which I landed in with a giant cannonball.
I didn’t care who was last, as long as they joined me.
 9

I TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND SWAM ALONG THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL ,
breaking through to the surface to gasp for air. As soon as I’d pushed the
wet hair off my face, I felt a pair of hands on my bare ass.
“Such a hot little behind you have,” Brant growled in my ear.
I laughed and pushed back against him, his hands making way for my
cheeks to slide up and down his now-hard cock.
“Jesus. That didn’t take long,” I said, grinding on him.
“Oh fuck,” he moaned. “It doesn’t take long when you strip off your
dress and run like that.”
He reached around and placed his palm on my stomach, then, slowly
lowered it to cup my pussy. His middle finger dipped between my lips,
wiggling against my slit.
“Damn, baby. You’re already nice and slippery.”
I think I’d been slippery since the moment I’d met these guys.
I let my head loll back onto his shoulder. “What are we gonna do about
that?” I teased.
“I can think of a few things,” he said, lifting my feet off the bottom of
the pool, carrying me toward the edge with his hand still between my legs.
When we reached the stairs in the corner, he positioned me on the
second step with my right leg poised on the edge of the pool. Then he
pushed me forward, where I held the stairs’ railing, and he situated himself
behind me. His cocked bounced between my legs as he held me by the
waist, and I felt myself opening. I wanted it, and wanted it now.
“How would you like it, baby? Pussy or ass?” he asked in a low, rasping
voice.
 I’d heard that voice before. It came before a nice, hot, delicious fucking.
Across the yard, I saw Teague and Luke talking in the kitchen. But
when they caught a look at what Brant and I were doing, they joined us in
the yard, huge grins on their faces.
“I’m fucking watching this. I’ll get lunch after,” Teague said, plopping
into a lounge chair under an oversized umbrella.
Luke did the same, settling in with his hands behind his head, all nice
and comfortable for our show.
I’d never been an exhibitionist before, at least not that I was aware of.
But having Brant bend me forward until my tits swung, running his finger
from my ass to clit and back, in the beautiful sunshine right in front of an
audience of two fucking gorgeous men, bathed me in a world of confidence.
“How should he fuck me, guys?” I called across the pool in a naughty,
teasing tone.
Yeah, I was naughty. I was a tease.
And these guys loved it.
Teague and Luke looked at each other like kids in a candy store.
“Pussy!” Luke hollered.
I glanced over my shoulder. “You heard the man,” I said, wiggling
against Brant’s hard-on.
He took a hand from my waist, and he spat. The motion that followed
that told me he was lubing his dick with saliva, something that used to gross
me out but now I somehow found incredibly hot, primal, and raw.
Exactly how I felt about getting fucked outdoors with two guys
watching.
I lifted my elevated leg higher, begging to have my pussy filled, like a
hungry little bird with its mouth wide open.
Brant gripped me again and drove all the way inside me.
I screamed. I couldn’t help it.
I couldn’t get enough. With him holding me, I could barely move, and
had no way to thrust back against him as he drove in and out.
I was at his mercy. Just as he wanted it.
“Oh, that pussy, so good on my cock, so juicy and tight. You’re sucking
me dry, baby,” he growled.
I exploded into an ocean of sensation as he pounded harder and harder,
and for a fleeting moment, I wondered what I would do when I was back in
Manhattan, far away from these guys.
 Surely, they’d just forget about me. And for a moment, my heart hurt.
But I pushed that shit away. I was going to be present, dammit.
Worrying about yesterday and tomorrow never did me a bit of goddamn
good before, so why should I let that stuff fuck with my head right now?
My pussy was being rammed by a gorgeous guy, who also happened to be
nice too.
A combo, I had to admit, I was sadly unfamiliar with.
So I was going to enjoy it for every minute I had it.
“Fuck me, Brant, fuck me,” I begged, my head bucking as I gripped the
railing for purchase.
“Yeah, I’ll fuck you,” he growled. “Come for me, baby, come for me…”
And as if his words controlled me, a violent orgasm bubbled up from
the center of my body, reaching every pore. Wave after wave rolled through
me until I lost track of everything around me except the cock making me
feel so good. I reached back to my waist and wrapped my fingers around
one of Brant’s hands, where he was holding me, and he gripped them back
without hesitation.
“Oh fuck,” he hollered, plunging into me one last time. He held himself
there, bending forward to kiss the back of my neck.
We were pulled out of our post-orgasmic reverie by slow applause
coming from our audience.
“Nice, dude. Very nice,” Teague said.
I looked over, having momentarily forgotten they were even there.
Luke smiled. “That was pretty fucking hot, you two.”
Brant helped me out of the pool, sitting me on its edge, and lay down
next to me on the warm deck.
“Baby, you about killed me,” he said.
“I was about to say the same about you,” I replied.
“Hey, guys,” Luke called from across the pool.
I managed to turn my head in their direction to see that he and Teague
had gotten to their feet.
I waved weakly. Brant didn’t even pretend to move.
“We’ll be back with lunch,” Luke called over his shoulder.
I lay down on the deck next to Brant. The hard concrete was anything
but comfortable, but it was warm and about as far as I could move my body
at that moment.
 Brant slung an arm over me. “What do you think they’ll get us?” he
asked.
That’s right. They hadn’t even asked what we wanted. I figured they
knew Brant well enough to know what he’d want for his lunch.
Me? Not so much. But on the other hand, I was so hungry they could set
just about anything in front of me and I’d devour it.
“I don’t know what they’re bringing back. But I hope they get a lot of
it.”
By the time Teague and Luke returned, Brant and I had managed to get
our asses over to some lounge chairs. He’d wrapped me in a towel, and then
knotted one around his own waist.
“Guys,” he called toward his friends, “what took so fucking long?”
Luke threw his hands up in the air. “We went to your cousin’s place but
with the weekend traffic, it took forever.”
They laid out an assortment of sandwiches, chips, and sodas, and were
polite enough to let me choose first.
I started to nibble on turkey and swiss on rye.
“So Aspen,” Luke started to say, “I called someone I know. He’s a
computer whiz.”
Teague scoffed. “Call it like it is, dude. The guy’s a hacker.”
“Whatever, Teague. He doesn’t like that term. Anyway, he’s coming
over later to look at your boss’s computer. You know, to see if we can get
into it.”
Fear coursed through my veins. I wasn’t ready. If I did have solid proof
that Lake had stolen my designs, how would that feel? And what would I
then do with the information? How the hell would I confront someone like
her?
“You know guys, about that… I’m not sure I really want to know any
more than I already do,” I said in a quiet voice.
Luke nodded. “That’s fine, Aspen. We don’t have to go through with
this—”
But Teague cut him off. “Fuck that, Aspen. Your boss is screwing you
over. That’s bullshit.”
I suddenly felt small. Like I was shrinking into nothing. All I could
think was to run away like a scared little mouse.
“I… I don’t know…”
 Brant put a hand on my arm. “Aspen, why don’t we see what he finds,
and then you can decide. Just because you have proof, it doesn’t mean you
have to do anything with it.”
I looked at the guys, total strangers just twenty-four hours ago. They
were the complete package. They really were. All three of them.
I felt a little stab in my heart when I thought of how I’d be leaving them
tomorrow. Depending on Lake’s car, of course.
I shrugged. “Okay, let’s see what he finds.”
“You know, Aspen, we had another thought. Something else you might
be interested in,” Luke said.
Wrinkling my brow, I looked at him. “What? What do you mean?”
Teague shrugged. “Why go back to Manhattan at all? Stay here with us.
And come to LA at the end of the summer. My dad knows a lot of people.
He can help you get a good job. There are some really good designers in
LA. You don’t have to be in New York.”
I snorted. I really did. And then I snorted again.
“You guys are hilarious. Fucking hilarious.”
I looked at each of them, one at a time, to see if they were fucking with
me. But their faces were serious.
“This isn’t a joke,” Luke said. “We discussed it this morning.”
I waved him off with another bark of laughter. “Well, that’s very nice of
you guys. But I have commitments. Responsibilities. A summer of sneaking
into other peoples’ pools and partying is not really in the cards for me.”
Damn. Must be nice.
But everyone had to grow up eventually. Even these guys.
I finished my sandwich and stood. “I’m going to get cleaning. You guys
feel free to hang.”
With that, I left the three of them by the pool, none of us saying another
word.
 10

I T TURNED OUT THAT , AS I’ D HOPED , THE HOUSE WAS PRETTY EASY TO

clean. I just gathered up all the beer cans and other trash, and mopped the
tile floor and wiped down the walls. Then, I moved upstairs to see if any
partygoers had made themselves at home up there, even though I’d put a
big chair in front of the stairs.
But before I did, I returned to Lake’s bedroom and to the closet where
I’d found the notebook with my drawings. I sat down on the room’s plushy
carpet, and paged through it.
Sure, my sketches could have been in her notebook to be used as a
reference, but why would she have told me my stuff wasn’t good enough
yet, then design things so similar? Guess I just didn’t want to believe she’d
done it.
It looked like she’d swiped the ideas of a number of her staff, too. Not
just me. While I supposed that might have made me feel a little better,
knowing I wasn’t the only victim, it somehow made me madder. It was
pretty clear she’d been stealing from people all her career, and made her
fortune off other people’s talent.
I wanted to kill her. Well, not kill her. But at least beat the shit out of
her.
I got to my feet and ran to the stop of the stairs. “Luke,” I called.
“Yes, Aspen?” he hollered back.
“Let’s get that computer whiz going. I want to see what’s on that
laptop.”
I was pissed and it felt good. I needed to be pissed. It gave me the
energy to do what needed to be done.
 Something I would have done a long time ago if I’d had the balls.
“No worries, baby. He’s already here.”
What? I hadn’t heard anyone come in.
I ran down the stairs so fast I nearly wiped out, just in time for a guy I’d
never seen before to step aside so I could access the laptop he’d gotten into.
“How did you do it?” I breathed.
He just smiled. “We have our ways,” he said and excused himself to go.
I went directly to her email and searched for my name. After a bit of
snooping, what I found made my stomach turn. Seriously. I thought I might
vomit.
It was to our lead designer.
Take Aspen’s sketch and superimpose it over one of mine. She’ll never
know.
Will do, boss. She sure does good work.
No shit. That’s why I hired her.
I felt like someone had just hit me on the head and pounded me straight
into the ground. My eyes filled with tears, and I grabbed the counter for
balance.
“Are you okay, Aspen?” Brant asked, putting an arm around my
shoulders.
I tried to shake away the lump in my throat, but it didn’t work. “Yeah. I
knew it all along. Guess I just needed proof,” I said in a breaking voice.
“Sucks, man,” Teague said, planting a kiss on my cheek.
Yeah, it sucked. But you know what didn’t suck?
These three guys.
What the hell was I moping about?
“I… I don’t know how to thank you all. I mean, you’ve been so nice to
me and we met only freaking yesterday. You’re just so… so amazing.”
Brant pulled me a little closer. “You’re pretty amazing, too.”
I wasn’t sure what they saw in me that was so great. But I didn’t mind
it. At all.
“Have you thought any more about our offer?” Teague asked, rubbing a
warm hand down my back.
The sensation flew right to my core. But I needed to focus, if only for a
bit.
“Your offer?” I laughed. “You only mentioned it a couple hours ago. A
girl needs more time than that.”
 He shrugged, and looked at the other guys.
“What? What’s up?” I asked.
“Well,” Luke started, “turns out my cousin was able to fix the car pretty
quickly.”
Well shit. Something about that made my pulse race. Like the
realization that I had to get out of there and back to the city before Monday
morning.
And the thought of that made my stomach churn.
Just then, the phone rang. Lake’s landline. Who even had a landline
anymore?
I put my finger to my lips as I picked up the phone. “LaRenne
residence.”
“Aspen!” Lake’s voice rang through the line.
She sounded giddy. Guess hot French guy was taking good care of his
sugar momma.
“The realtor told me about the house. Thank you for cleaning it all up. I
really appreciate that. I can’t believe the house was broken into. Crime is
just everywhere today, isn’t it?” she shrilled.
If she only knew.
“You’re welcome, Lake. I am glad to help.”
Wait. That sounded like the old Aspen. I didn’t want to be her anymore.
“Luckily, Lake, they didn’t get your laptop,” I said.
She giggled at something in the background. “Oh, that would have been
terrible. That laptop is very important to me.”
I bet.
“Say, Aspen,” she started, “I was considering promoting someone else
in the company, but was thinking you might be up to the task.”
For cripe’s sake. She was incapable of paying someone a compliment
without insulting them at the same time.
“What do you think? Junior designer?” she teased.
Twenty-four hours earlier, I would have done backflips at an offer like
that. I would have cried. I would have been intensely grateful for any little
crumb Lake might throw my way. But a lot could change in one day.
“If I’m junior designer, Lake, will you continue to steal my designs?”
There was silence for a moment, and I wondered if we’d been
disconnected. I didn’t care if we had. I’d said all I needed to say. Lake knew
she was busted.
 But that didn’t mean she was ready to admit it.
“Wh… what are you talking about, Aspen? I don’t steal designs—”
Teague pumped his fist in the air, and the other guys high-fived over my
head.
“Lake, let me save you the effort. You know the laptop you left here?
Well, it wasn’t hard to get past the password. I saw your emails about my
work.”
“I… I don’t understand. What were you doing in my email? Were you
snooping? You know that’s grounds for termination, Aspen—”
“Don’t worry about it, Lake. I quit.”
I hung up the phone, a combination of abject terror and triumph running
through me at the same time. The sensation was so strong I ran over to the
kitchen sink in case I got sick.
But I didn’t.
The guys didn’t share my trepidation. “Fuck yeah!” Luke said, clapping
his hands.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” I said, splashing cool water on
my face. “What the hell did I just do?”
Luke walked over to me and placed both his hands on my shoulders.
“Aspen, you just did what’s known as kicking ass and taking names. You
are officially a badass.”
I looked up at him, not entirely sure I agreed. “Holy shit. I have rent to
cover and a student loan to pay back.” I needed a new cell phone, too.
“Okay. Okay. You’re freaking. That’s normal. But we can help. As soon
as the car’s ready, we’ll head back to Manhattan, following you in one of
our cars. We’ll load up all your stuff, and bring you back. Teague’s
grandparents have a guest cottage you can stay in.”
I looked down at my feet, confused by the fluttering in my chest. What
he was saying made no sense at all. But it was starting to.
“I can’t leave my roommate high and dry,” I started to say.
Teague took my hand. “Look. I’ll loan you the money to pay rent until
she gets someone new. And you’ll be living at my grandparents for free,
anyway.”
I shook my head. “No. No. That’s crazy. I’ll head back to Manhattan
and get another job.”
Yeah right. After I’d pissed off Lake LaRenne, my name would be mud
in the industry.
 “Aspen,” Luke said gently, “you can get a job here for the summer.
Remember, we know everyone. And then you can head to LA with us.”
It was too much. All too much. I grabbed a seat at the dining table and
put my head in my hands.
The guys said nothing, which I appreciated. They knew I needed a
moment to think.
I could come up with a dozen reasons why Teague, Luke, and Brant
were crazy for suggesting something I had no business going along with.
But I could think of three good reasons why I should.
I looked up, tired of being afraid.
“Fuck it, guys. Let’s do it.”
Holy shit. Did I really just say that?
But I must have, as evidenced by all the hooting and hollering I was
surrounded by.
“Last one in the pool buys dinner!” I screamed, running out the back
door while tearing off my clothes.
With three hot guys in tow, who’d just extended me the invitation of a
lifetime.
I didn’t know how I would manage things, or what I would tell my
parents, but I knew that with these guys by my side, shit would work out.
Like it always did for them, and was beginning to, for me, as well.

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I’m contemporary romance author Mika Lane, and am all about bringing you sexy, sassy stories with
imperfect heroines and the bad-a*s dudes they bring to their knees. And I have a special love for
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Writing has been a passion of mine since, well, forever (my first book was "The Day I Ate the
Milkyway," a true fourth-grade masterpiece). These days, steamy romance, both dark and funny,
gives purpose to my days and nights as I create worlds and characters who defy the imagination. I
live in magical Northern California with my own handsome alpha dude, sometimes known as Mr.
Mika Lane, and two devilish cats named Chuck and Murray. These three males also defy my
imagination from time to time.
 A lover of shiny things, I've been known to try new recipes on unsuspecting friends, find hiding
places so I can read undisturbed, and spend my last dollar on a plane ticket somewhere.
Check out my latest series, The Men at Work Collection, about hot men and the professions that
make them successful masters of the universe... and the women they love.
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