Jodi Redford - The Naughty List

“Three.”

“Oh yeah. That one’s good. But wait until you get to…” He broke off as he suddenly picked out his and Ry’s names down toward the bottom of the list. His pulse speeding up, he concentrated his attention on that particular bulleted line. It took three times of reading it over to convince himself his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. Once the reality seeped into his brain, his heart hammered so hard, he actually felt a little woozy. It was tempting to pinch himself and verify that he wasn’t dreaming. Or trapped in some alternate dimension. Beside him, Ry was frozen like a statue. It didn’t take much to figure out that he’d finished the entire list too. Bram swallowed. Hard. “She wants to have a threesome. With you and me.”

Ry’s jaw worked but no words immediately sprang free. He cleared his throat. “There is no fucking way Lacey sent this.”

“Dude, it’s from her personal email.”

“A hacker?”

He gave Ry a dry look. “One who’d know to add your and my names? Not to mention the sex club?”

Ry scowled. “How the hell does Lacey know about that?”

He shrugged. “Damned if I know.”

Ry combed his fingers through his hair, his hand unsteady. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this.”

“Buddy, that makes two of us.” He returned his attention to the monitor. It was insane—the notion that the whole time he and Ry had been lusting after Lacey, she’d been engaged in some pretty raunchy thoughts herself. About them. Holy shit. Like a moth drawn to fire, he visually devoured the last line again. His cock thickened even more. “What are we going to do about it?”

Ry’s gaze jumped to him. “What do you mean what are we going to do about it? Nothing, goddamn it.”

“We’ve done it before. With that woman a few years ago at the club.” Just the reminder of the night in question made Bram’s cock bob against his fly. He’d participated in a few threesomes before that incident, and even one afterwards, but none of them came remotely close to rocking his world like that night. It wasn’t that he was secretly gay for Ry or anything. Hell, handling any cock other than his own wasn’t his idea of a good time, but there was no denying that sharing a woman with Ry had been mind blowing.

“That’s different. Neither of us was in love with that woman.”

“Yet it was still hot and amazing.”

A muscle ticked in Ry’s jaw. “Your point is?”

“Imagine what it would be like with Lacey, since we do love her. It’d be out of this fucking world.”

“She’s not someone to just play around with.”

Bram bit back a growl. “You think I don’t know that? I’m not suggesting anything that she obviously doesn’t already want.” He waved his hand toward the computer. Indecision warred in Ry’s eyes. Bram knew when to push his advantage. “Don’t you see what this means? It’s our shot at both of us being with her. She wouldn’t have to choose.”

“You honestly would be fine with Lacey fucking us both?”

Fine? The mental picture of being buried in Lacey’s pussy while Ry shafted her ass had Bram so damn hard, he was seconds away from coming in his pants. “Yes. Aren’t you?”

Tension bracketed Ry’s mouth. “I don’t know.”

Desperation clawed at Bram’s chest. He had to make Ry see reason. To believe this could work. He tapped his finger on the computer screen and read out loud, “I’d have someone blindfold me before tying me up and fucking me.”

The muscle twitching grew more pronounced in Ry’s jaw, and his nostrils flared. Bram knew he had his best friend by the short hairs. “Tell me you don’t want to be the one doing that to her.”

“Damn it. Of course I do.” The gruffness in Ry’s voice didn’t mask the underlying hunger in his tone.

“Then I think our mission is clear.” Bram gave a slow, triumphant smile. “This Christmas, we’re helping Lacey check off every item on her Naughty List.”

It wasn’t her alarm clock that snapped Lacey from a deep snooze, but rather the loud, obnoxious droning of her next-door neighbor’s snow blower. Groaning, she rolled onto her back and winced as tiny pinpricks of pain lanced her temples. Oh man. Having that extra half a glass of wine had been a huge mistake.

Cautiously pulling her hand away from her eyes, she peered toward the window, where she could make out flurries of snow whipping against the glass.

What time was it, anyway?

Careful not to wrench her neck, she glanced toward the alarm clock on the nightstand. And yelped when she read the display. Nine a.m.! Why didn’t the damn alarm go off? Not wasting time to investigate the cause, she jumped out of bed and scurried into the bathroom. She wasn’t one of those business owners who catered to the idea of rolling into work whenever she pleased. She believed in setting a good example for the employees. In return, she liked to think they respected her work ethics. Quickly disrobing, she hopped into the shower. And promptly got pelted in the head with the bottle of shampoo that insisted on falling out of the caddy.

It was going to be one of those kinds of days.

Fifteen minutes later, she jumped into her car and dialed the heater to full blast in order to defrost the windshield. She huddled in her seat, her teeth chattering along with “Jingle Bells” on the radio. It occurred to her that she should probably call Ry and Bram to let them know she was on her way in. She rifled in her purse for her cell phone and somehow jabbed herself with a ballpoint pen. “Damn it.”

Finally she latched onto her phone and pulled it free. She must not have turned it off last night because a text message waited on the display.

Girl, WTF??? Call me as soon as you get this.

Frowning, Lacey checked to see who the sender was. Jana, Bram’s sister. She started to hit reply, but the clock on the dash brought her focus back to her current dilemma. She stared at the tiny peek holes that the heater had managed to create on the windshield. This was going to get her nowhere fast. Heaving a frustrated breath, she tossed the cell into her coat pocket and grabbed the ice scraper from the backseat. Several minutes later, the front and back windshields were cleared and her butt and legs were completely numb from the frigid temps. She scrambled back inside the relative warmth of her Pathfinder and roared out of her driveway.

The Dockside was less than seven miles from her home, which was particularly nice on days like this, when the weather was crappy and she was running late. She parked next to Ry’s truck and rushed toward the entrance. As she reached for the door handle, her bladder decided to pitch a fit. She squeezed her legs together. “This is what I get for sleeping in.”

Her gait awkward, she hurried inside the restaurant. Ry and Bram were standing by the bar, deep in conversation. They stopped and stared at her. She waved a hand and continued streaking toward the rear hallway.

“Lacey, we need to talk.” There was a strange tension in Ry’s voice.

“Sorry, but my bladder is outshouting you right now,” she called, beelining for the restrooms. She ducked inside the women’s room and dashed into one of the stalls in the nick of time. Her relieved sigh echoing in the cramped space, she flushed and went to wash up at the sink. While she was rinsing the suds from her hands, her cell phone started ringing. Hitting the sanitizing blower with her elbow, she dug with her free hand into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. “Hello?”

“Girl, what the fuck?”

It was Jana. Clutching the cell to her ear, Lacey moved away from the dryer so that she could hear better. “Is that your phrase for the day?”

“It will be if you keep sending me kinky emails.”

She frowned. “Kinky emails? What are you talking about?”

“Your Naughty List. What else would I be talking about?”

Naughty…

The blood slowly started to drain from Lacey’s head.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were thinking about having a threesome? That’s so hot. Okay, so I’m trying not to think of you with Bram. Because that’s just a little too weird. But Ry? Day-um. Sign me up.”

Oh. My. God. How…?

Frantic, Lacey replayed the events of last night. She remembered forwarding the file to her work email. Why did it go to Jana?

Unless…

Oh sweet Jesus. Did she accidentally send the email to a contact list rather than herself? Her email account had an autofill feature that she was usually pretty good about catching, but the damn wine she drank last night had definitely left her brain fuzzy. She racked her mind, trying to think of what directory started with the same letters as her name, one that would include Jana in the list. The answer slammed into her. Her “lame laughs” directory—appropriately titled because everyone on it had the same cornball sense of humor as her and appreciated the silly articles she occasionally found online and forwarded on. If that was the case—and it sure as hell looked like it—it meant everyone in that particular directory got the file. The contents of her stomach gave a dangerous lurch.

“Lacey? You still there?”

“I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later.” She hung up before Jana could protest. Her palms were so clammy, the cell phone nearly slipped from her hand. She shoved it into her coat pocket and collapsed against the wall. Her face alternated between icy cold and blistering hot. The blower had ceased its thunderous noise, making the pounding whoosh inside her head all the more apparent.

There was no way this was happening.

Only it was.