Conference Call by Kelly Jamieson

My talented crit partner, Kelly Jamieson, has a new release and you’re going to love this story. Here’s an excerpt:

Conference Call
Copyright © KELLY JAMIESON, 2010

The two men sat there, saying nothing. Noah played with his fork. Shaun drained his wine glass.

“Well,” Noah said.

“So,” Shaun said.

They glanced at each other, then away. Then Noah sighed. “Kenzie’s a sweetheart. She doesn’t deserve two assholes acting like idiots.”

“You’re right,” Shaun bit out. “So stop acting like one.”

“Me! Hey, I’m trying to make an effort here. You could do the same.”

Shaun blew out a breath. “Yeah, okay. Sorry, man. It’s just…Kenzie’s a pretty special friend.”

Noah eyed him, jealousy like a rock in his gut. “I gather you two are more than just friends.”

Shaun grinned, then at Noah’s stern look, sobered. “Yeah, we hooked up a couple of years ago. We kept in touch, but it’s not anything serious.”

“Then why the hell are you acting like you own her?”

 “Why are you?” Shaun lifted his chin in a challenge and Noah grimaced.

“Hell if I know,” he muttered. His reaction to Shaun showing up surprised him too. He wasn’t sure what he’d wanted to happen tonight. He’d been looking forward to seeing Kenzie, despite telling himself this was business, but from the moment her soft curves had collided into him, he’d been hot for her. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with a colleague, but…

It wasn’t like it never happened. Merritt had no rules about relationships between employees and the truth was there were lots of married couples who worked together at Merritt. There were also lots of divorced couples, but he’d only known one situation where the divorce was so bitter that they’d had to move the couple to different teams. Then Julie had hacked into her ex-husband’s e-mail and started sending offensive memos to senior executives. She’d been pretty good at covering her tracks, but really, she should have known in a business full of software specialists someone was going to be able to figure out who did it.

Anyway, he knew he should keep things strictly business, but hell, the truth was, he wanted to fuck Kenzie’s brains out. He got hard just at the thought. Then this guy had shown up, pissing him off. His insides burned with thoughts of Kenzie with Shaun.

“Look, I like her too,” he said. “I don’t know her very well, but I was hoping to get to know her better while we’re here. And then you came along and…”

Shaun shrugged. “Not my fault. I didn’t even know she was going to be here. Can’t help it if she likes me.” He grinned.
Noah resisted the urge to punch him. They were both silent for a moment, looking down at their plates.

“So,” Shaun said slowly. “You want her. I want her. What are we going to do about it?”

They looked at each other. “Pistols at dawn?” Noah suggested dryly. Shaun laughed. “Wait, I know. Arm wrestling. Go on over there.” He nodded to Kenzie’s chair. “We can wrestle for her.”

“A couple of software geeks arm wrestling.” Shaun guffawed. “We might as well thumb wrestle.”

“Hey,” Noah said, offended. “I work out.” He tightened his biceps.

“So do I.” Shaun folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. “I was making a joke.”

Again, silence. No way was Noah going to bow out. He might have struggled with his conscience on the way here, told himself he had to stay professional, but now that he’d seen Kenzie, now that he knew she was even sweeter than he remembered, he had no intention of giving her up.

Apparently Shaun felt the same.

“There is a way we both can win,” Shaun said slowly, lowering his arms to the armrests of his chair.

Noah waited. And waited. “Okay, what?”

“How about we both have her?”

Noah stared at him. Huh? “What? Like me tonight, you tomorrow night?” He curled his lip. “She’s not a doll we can just pass around.”

“No. I mean, we both have her…tonight.”

Noah’s brows shot up. “You mean…” Shaun couldn’t mean what he thought he meant. He eyed Shaun uncertainly.

“A threesome,” Shaun said. He lifted one shoulder. “You, me and Kenzie.”

“Uh…” Noah was stunned speechless. Jesus.

It wasn’t like he’d never had a threesome before. There’d been that time with the Taylor twins—Christ, that’d been hot—and he’d had his share of fantasies about three in a bed. But in his mind it was always him and two girls.

Was Shaun gay? Bi?

He was still waiting for Noah to say something.

“I’m straight,” Noah blurted.

Shaun grinned. “Don’t worry, dude, it’s not you I’m interested in. We can just concentrate on making Kenzie feel good.”

Oh, yeah. He could get into that. He shook his head, still hardly believing they were having this conversation. “You know, Kenzie might not be up for that.”

Shaun’s knowing smile taunted him. “I think she might