Two for the Money Excerpt

Chapter One

They stood by the door like a set of mismatched bookends. Roger Harris held her jacket in his big, sexy hands. Six feet four and a solid wall of muscle, he had the disposition of a man who didn’t suffer fools easily, bordering on too serious and hard-driving. She delighted in bringing a smile to lips that held a natural frown, turning the searing green of his eyes bright with childlike amusement. He was the most complex man she’d ever met, and if she had to choose between them tonight, she’d pick him hands down.

But as she turned to let him help her with her coat, she wondered if that was only because experience had taught her to be leery of drop-dead gorgeous men like Dean Jansen.

And there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Dean was divinely handsome.

He held the door open to the restaurant where they’d just had their bimonthly sales dinner, his constantly amused disposition keeping a sexy, lopsided grin on his face that reminded her of early Brad Pitt before he got all weird. With a body of a professional soccer player, he was tall and lean, his ice blue eyes set into the tanned face of someone who was outside every chance he could sneak away. “After you,” he said, actually bowing to her, making her giggle (she wasn’t a giggler, swear to God, he just made her feel that way).

Roger snorted behind her.

Jansen flashed him a grin, revealing deep dimples in his cheeks. “You’re just jealous because I’ve got style with the ladies.”

Against his usual M.O., Roger laughed, walking through the door before Dean could follow her out.

They were best friends and, standing on the sidewalk watching them laugh together, she wondered if her presence in their lives might hurt that. Her own smile faded. They’d made it clear they both wanted her and were waiting on her to decide. She’d put it off. The fact was, she liked them both for very different reasons.

“What’s wrong, sweets?” Dean said, cradling her chin in his hand.

She let a smile grow back on her face. “Nothing. At least for now.”

His eyes narrowed, and for once his face held a serious look. “I worry about it too, but we’ll be okay whatever you decide.”

“You two coming?” Roger yelled from his SUV in the now deserted parking lot. They’d been the last ones to leave, and she suspected she wasn’t the only one who didn’t want the evening to end. He shed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, despite the nip in the fall air.

“Of course, we both know you’ll pick me, so,” Dean tucked her arm under his, turning her to the SUV. “Why don’t you put poor Roger out of his misery and go ahead and announce it on the way back to work.”

Overhearing them, Roger rolled his eyes. “Don’t go for the outside package, Mel, go for brains.”

They’d left their cars at the office, letting Roger drive since he didn’t drink. He was way too much of a control freak for that, although shocking everyone, even he’d had a beer at dinner.

“You wish.” Dean handed her into the front seat and jumped in back. “Just drive, James.”

They pulled out of the parking lot, laughing, and Melissa suddenly wished she could keep them both. Two for the price of one. Like a really good shoe sale. Two for the money. She stopped the snicker that welled up inside her. Really, ever since she’d first had the outrageous idea of being with them both, she’d been having these crazy thoughts. At first they’d horrified her, but then they made her laugh.

As much as the idea amused her, they were way too Alpha for that, their behavior strong and sure, outshining even her own stubborn, driven personality. Alphas didn’t share women. It was a damn shame too, because having them both would make her a very happy woman.

She blinked, staring out the window as the two men talked about sales rankings. When had she started thinking about men like this? Sure, she’d had sex, but missionary, in-the-dark kind of sex, not keeping-two-men-at-her-beck-and-call sex. Ever since they’d both begun asking her out a month ago, she’d been having the most powerful images of them, separately and together, naked, touching her in the dark. So powerful, she’d barely touch herself and she’d come. The thought of the two of them, naked, framing her, was enough to leave her panting.

She was pretty sure she’d lost her mind.

It’s because they make me feel desirable, she realized with a start. That was it. Studying her reflection in the window glass, she knew she was cute, but no more. Certainly not a match for Dean’s perfect looks. Highlights saved her from mouse-brown hair, and while she thought her face was certainly pretty, with nice hazel eyes and full, possibly sexy lips, she was five feet four in her socks and shaped like a pear. She’d always been too curvy for her own good. Business skirts tended towards straightjackets, so she’d had to be creative, working hard to hide a shape that didn’t want to be hidden. She had always believed her body type had missed the right time period by a hundred years.

Well, they certainly liked her body, and their attention had made her feel sexy and desirable for the first time in her life. With them, she felt… positively wicked.

“What do you think about it, Mel?” Roger asked, drawing her back into the conversation.

She rewound in her mind and caught the general gist of their debate. “I think I’m going to beat you no matter how they set the numbers.”

While they laughed, she wondered if they’d heard the odd purr riding through her words. What had gotten into her? She took a deep breath, staring at the deserted back roads they’d had to travel to reach the Inn, now wishing there wasn’t such a long drive to her car. She was scaring herself with her current line of thinking.

“What’s wrong?” Roger touched her knee, making her jump. The feel of his huge hand on her leg set loose a burst of desire, the thin silk of her dress between them intensifying the feeling.

“This can only end badly for all three of us,” she said, no longer beating around the bush. Either way she chose, it would impact them all. There would be no more kidding around at work, no more long lunches and happy hours, no more laughter. Things like this made best friends turn to bitter enemies. She didn’t want to be a part of something so potentially dangerous. Besides, they’d both become her friends over the last four months she’d worked at the company. She didn’t have enough friends left to lose them.

And that’s when it happened -- right after she’d brought up the subject they’d all been dancing around for a month into the open. She saw the deer from her peripheral vision, bounding into the road in a blur. In a total wuss-girl moment, she yelped.

“Oh shit, watch it!” Dean shouted from the back seat.

Roger hit the brakes, but on the back road, gravel had gathered, skating them down the pavement into the deer, turning the big SUV in a slow circle.

Then they were off the road, tumbling in halftime down an embankment Melissa hadn’t even seen, rolling over so she hung in her seat belt, until they finally came to a strangely gentle rest at the bottom of the hill upside down.

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