Then his cock slid across the perfect spot, his pelvis grinding down on her clit so both buttons were pushed at the same moment, igniting a spectacular fire.
Through her own orgasm, she felt Michael stiffen above her. He held himself hard against her, elongating the pleasure, and then he dropped on top of her, pressing her into the mattress. She held him tight as her blood pounded through her body, the relief a secondary wave of pleasure.
It was almost as sweet as the rush of emotion she got from the way he covered her with his body, his head cuddled against her neck.
“Hey, Mike,” a familiar voice said. “You in a good mood now?”
How had they missed Ty coming into the bedroom? He stood at the foot of the bed, a six-pack of beer in his hand. Ty wasn’t a big beer fan, so he’d obviously stopped somewhere to pick it up for Michael, who didn’t even raise his head.
“I’m in a perfect mood,” Michael said with a sigh. If he was bothered that Ty was staring at them and likely had watched them have sex, he didn’t show it at all.
Yep. A couple of days before she would have jumped up in pure embarrassment, shocked at anyone witnessing such an intimate moment between her and her boyfriend. But it had only been her other boyfriend, and he seemed pretty cool with it.
“Good because your ex-fiancée’s sister is here at the lodge. I brought you beer and your favorite chips, but Lucy seems to have handled it for me.” Ty gave her a grin and a thumbs-up. “You did good, baby. Also, you look really pretty tonight.”
She snorted as Michael rolled off her. Well, at least she knew what had happened and that Ty hadn’t planned to keep it from her.
Ty made his way back to the kitchen.
“I’m still going to need that beer, Ty.” Michael propped his head up with his hand and sighed as he looked her in the eyes, a soft expression on his face. “Jessie’s sister showed up. She was at my cabin when Ty and I got there, and I’m not sure I handled her well.”
“You were awful,” Ty yelled from the next room.
Michael groaned and dropped back down, his head against her breast. “Fuck. I was awful.”
No wonder he’d been in a mood. He wasn’t ready to talk about Jessie at all, much less face her family. She stroked his hair. “Then maybe it’s a good thing you have a second chance to make it right.”
Ty strode back in, an opened bottle of beer in his hand. “I have some thoughts on how you can do that.”
Michael’s lips curled up. “All right. Let me clean up and I’ll hear you out.”
He rolled off the bed and started for the bathroom. But not before he grabbed his beer.
Ty’s eyes lit up. “We have at least three minutes. The Farley brothers tried to make their own fireworks, and I had to do a lot of eye washing. It was a day.”
He jumped on the bed while Lucy laughed.
Two men could be a whole lot of work.
Chapter Eleven
The following evening, Michael looked out over the big ballroom and wondered if he would survive the weekend.
This was not the job he wanted. This was a babysitting job, and he pretty much wanted to punch all the babies.
“What do you want, Harper?”
Max Harper had been staring at him for a good five minutes. He knew the man in front of him was Max and not his identical twin Rye because Rye never managed to raise his blood pressure the way Max did. Rye was out on the dance floor with their shared wife. Max didn’t seem to know what to do without them.
“Nothing. I was just surprised to see they got you into a tie.” Max had a beer in his hand. “Did you fight it?”
“It’s part of the uniform, asshole.” He rather wished a gun was part of his uniform. Or maybe a taser. Yeah, he could tase Max and spare the world his sarcasm.
“I always thought you would be the last one to sell out to the corporate world. You were the best of us. The lone ranger, out there living your life with no one telling you what to do.”
“With no working toilet.” He felt the need to point out the drawbacks of his recent lifestyle.
Max plunged ahead. “No one telling you ‘no Max, you can’t have five waffles because your cholesterol is high.’”
“I ate shitty canned chili for a year. Do you know what that can do to your digestive tract? And again, no working toilet.” It had been a miserable couple of years, and he was starting to believe it had all been one long grump and he was ready to be done with it.
“You were living the dream, man. You could sleep all day and drink all the beer you want. You didn’t have to worry about using the wrong blanket because some of them are decorative. No one made you get up early to hit the farmer’s market.”
Max was forgetting one big point. “Yeah, because no one gave a shit about me.”
Max sighed. “So now you’ve found a woman, and she made you wear a tie. It’s like a leash, man. She’s going to tug on it and make you do her bidding.”
“I’ll do her bidding any time she asks. Don’t make her sound like some nagging harpy. In fact, don’t make any woman sound like that. Women nag because men can be lazy as shit. You lazy, Max?”
Harper pulled his phone and started typing. He looked up when he was done, sliding the phone into his pocket. “Excellent, man. Hey, that suit looks good on you, brother. When you three have some time, come out to our place for supper.”
To his surprise he could actually hear the chimes from several of the phones around him going off at the same time. He watched as some of the residents of Bliss who’d come to the opening night party checked their cell phones.
A sigh of collective relief seemed to go through the crowd.
“Stef sent you to see how things are going?”
Max nodded. “Yeah.”
“You could have asked.”
“Nah, that’s boring and people lie. I already thought it was good since Lucy is running around with a smile a mile wide.” Max relaxed and came to stand beside him, taking a long drag off his beer. “But there were some rumors running around about you not showing up for lunch and her being in tears over it. Then you didn’t come into Trio to pick her up, and some of us were concerned. Now before you tell us to get out of your business, you should know…”
He hadn’t been about to give that lecture again. “You care about her and I’ve been a walking powder keg for the last couple of years. I know, but we’re fine. The three of us. We’re all good.”
“I’m glad to hear this, my friend,” a familiar voice said. Alexei Markov wore dark slacks and a black sweater that matched. He was a handsome man in his early thirties. It hit Michael that despite his brooding good looks and tendencies to wear a lot of black, Alexei was the Ty in his relationship. Caleb was the brooder, and Holly the happy woman who brought them all together. “Max, thank you for the update. Could I have a moment with my friend?”
Max nodded. “Sure thing. I got some more of Roberts’s free beer to drink. And I spotted some wings. There is no cholesterol this evening.”
“I’m going to have Luce send him an astronomical bill and watch his head explode.” He felt a smile cross his face. It wouldn’t be real, of course, but Max would think it was.