Perfect Alignment (35 page)

“Ricky.”

“Taryn.”

She swallowed, caught in Caleb’s gaze. “I love you.” She couldn’t decide what to make of the flicker in Caleb’s face at that.

“I love you too. But?”

“But I’m about to melt into a puddle of goo, and he’s just looking at me.”

“I wish he’d look at m—” Richard’s voice jerked into a squeak. Taryn looked at him and his eyes had gone wide. He flicked his eyes down to his leg, next to Caleb.

“I mean, yeah, me too.”

Taryn nodded her head and decided she was done talking for a while. The waitress brought their burgers and Caleb’s pie. Nobody spoke, they just ate.

Caleb pushed his pie plate away and wiped his lips with his napkin. Taryn’s eyes remained riveted to his lips. He licked them then smiled just a bit when she gulped.

“Taryn. Richard.”

“Caleb,” they said at the same time.

“What’s your story? You two are…?” He waved his hand between them. “A couple? Fuck buddies?”

Taryn looked at Richard and he nodded at her.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. After a few years, when we were both single, we started sleeping with each other. Sometimes one of us will meet someone we want to date, so we stop sleeping with each other. We’ve been doing that for about three years.”

Caleb looked at Richard. “You usually sleep with women?”

“No, only one woman other than Taryn, and it didn’t last very long.”

Caleb looked at Taryn. “You usually sleep with men?”

“I’ve never slept with a woman.”

“What about you?” Richard asked Caleb.

“I usually sleep with women,” Caleb answered, looking Richard up and down. “But I’ve had my share of men.”

“Together?” Taryn’s voice cracked so she cleared her throat. “Do you ever sleep with them at the same time?”

“A couple of times,” Caleb answered, “with two women. A couple of times with one woman, one other man.”

“And how did you find that?” Richard asked.

“Each situation was different. There can be…some confusion about who’s in charge.”

Taryn’s eyes went wide at this. She thought she might be bug-eyed at the end of this night. “In charge?”

Caleb’s eyes pierced her. “That’s right. What about you two—who’s in charge when you’re fucking?”

Taryn looked at Richard, who cleared his throat.

“I guess you could say we switch off.” He flushed. Taryn wondered if he was flushing in manly embarrassment at not being in charge all of the time, or at the idea that Caleb would want to be. It was not something they had ever discussed, and she realized he was right. Sometimes she was more aggressive, sometimes more nurturing, while other times he took charge, or was especially sweet and caring of her. They had a good, complementary relationship and suddenly she wondered if they were endangering that right now. If something happened with this man, even if it were only for one night, would it change them?

She finished her burger and soda and moved back to her milkshake.

Caleb’s long right leg stretched out, coming to rest between her legs. Taryn was pretty sure the action was deliberate, but was becoming more and more sober, and less and less able to admit to how badly she wanted something to happen.

“Taryn.”

“Caleb.”

“Have you ever slept with a stranger?”

“No.”

“Richard?”

“Not since college.”

“Have you both been tested?”

Taryn’s heart rate doubled. “Rick’s a doctor, so he tests us every year, for everything, no matter what. I’m clean,” she managed to get out.

“Ditto,” Richard said, his voice thick. “And we made a promise not to have unprotected sex until we were married to someone else and knew we wouldn’t be sleeping together anymore.”

Caleb waited, then looked at them both sternly, until Richard said, “And you?”

“I haven’t slept with a stranger in the last twelve years, and I get tested every year. I’m clean. I do not have unprotected sex, ever.”

There was silence for a few minutes.

“Caleb.” Taryn’s voice was small.

“Taryn.” Caleb’s voice was gentle, soothing and in control.

“We’re not…we don’t…earlier we…” She gave up, took a long drink from her soda.

Caleb looked at Richard for an interpretation this time.

“She means that earlier, when we were so…um…outspoken, that’s not what we’re really like. If that’s what you liked…” He stuttered to a stop, licked his lips.

“Why don’t you guys worry about whether or not you want to see me again, and let me worry about what I want?”

They were silent again for a time.

“Caleb,” Richard said.

“Yes?”

“Who are you?”

He seemed to think about the best way to answer that.

“You guys go to that pub much?”

“Sometimes we meet there after work, have a burger and a drink, listen to the music. We’ve never stayed that late before,” Richard answered, pushing his plate away. The waitress came to take their plates and refill Caleb’s coffee.

“Have you ever met the owner?”

“We met one of them, what was her name, Richard? Linda? No, Lisa. You were attracted to her, even before she got up and joined the band for a song.”

Caleb nodded. “Lisa. She and her husband are the owners, and he’s my brother, Sean.” He looked at Richard. “You have excellent taste in women.”

Taryn blushed.

“I grew up in the city, went into the military, retired, started a security firm, Precision Security, in Boston, with a partner. Moved here to North Fork last year when we decided a second, smaller office might be useful and I was getting tired of the city.”

The waitress asked if they needed anything else and left the check when they declined. Caleb asked her for a pen.

Taryn was losing steam, fast, and could tell that Richard was as well. He’d had a long, tough day, which had led to her encouraging him to let loose tonight. She had a feeling Caleb had realized this before either of them.

He took a napkin from the dispenser and handed it and a pen to Taryn. She looked at him for a few seconds, then at Richard, then down at the napkin. She drew in a deep breath and wrote down her name and cell phone number. She slid it across the table to Caleb, not meeting his eyes. Caleb handed it to Richard. Richard wrote on it and gave it back to Caleb.

He looked down at the napkin. “Taryn Moss. Richard Daniels.” He looked back up at them. “I’m Caleb Black. It’s been my pleasure to meet you both tonight. I hope you’ll have dinner with me sometime this week. I’ll call you, see if we can set something up.” He stood up, pulling out his wallet. He glared at them when they made to do the same. “Let’s walk back to the pub. There will probably be taxis out now.” He waited for them to exit the booth then followed them out.

They walked back toward the pub where they could see people getting into taxis.

“I’m going to tell you guys one thing, right now. I will not tolerate anything except honesty. If you like something, or don’t like something, if you want to have dinner with me or don’t want to have dinner with me, if you think I’m a controlling bastard or can’t wait for me to tell you to suck my cock, whatever. Just be honest.” He stopped two buildings down from the pub, put one hand on each of their waists, leaned in and kissed Richard, long and hard.

Taryn thought she might pass out, she was so turned on. She had seen men kiss before, and it had been pleasant to watch, but this, this was so clearly foreplay and not just for the guys. Despite the fact that they were the ones kissing, she didn’t feel left out. Caleb’s hand inched its way higher, his thumb coming to rest just under her breast. Her breathing deepened, as if her breast was trying to coax his hand higher.

Then Caleb’s mouth fastened on hers. She tasted him, warm and hard, with a hint of Richard underneath. He fucked her mouth, plunging his tongue in and out and around. Normally she hated that in a first kiss, but the last hour had been working her up to this and she was
so
ready. He broke off and she couldn’t suppress a whimper. He chuckled warmly, his hands going up to cup each of their necks. Then his look grew stern.

“You two can sleep together, but no sex until you talk to me, or you decide you’re not going to have dinner with me. I’m not going to be the only one not getting any, clear?” He quirked one brow until they both gave small nods.

“Be safe going home. I hope you answer my call.” Then he was gone.

Taryn grabbed Richard’s hand and they walked to a waiting cab.

Get Perfect Formation
here!

Perfect Formation (Perfect Fit Book 1)

Alpha Turned

Bound by Sunlight

Keeping Claire

Sweetest Seduction

Huge thanks to Nadia Lee for her amazing resources! Also to Vivienne Westlake, for all of your advice and many conversations about getting this book out there. And to all of Romance Divas in general for the incredible amount of knowledge and support available there, as well as the awesome community.

KB Alan lives the single life in Southern California. She acknowledges that she should probably turn off the computer and leave the house once in a while in order to find her own happily ever after, but for now she's content to delude herself with the theory that Mr. Right is bound to come knocking at her door through no real effort of her own. Please refrain from pointing out the many flaws in this system. Other comments, however, are happily received.

Visit her website at
www.kbalan.com

Perfect Alignment

Copyright © 2014 by KB Alan

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writers imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.