Teacher's Pets [Unlikely Bedfellows 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

“This is crazy,” Steve said, looking between Leah and Beau.

“Stay out of this,” Leah and Beau said together.

“Jesus, Beau. You can’t be considering this.”

“I haven’t made up my mind.” He picked up the paper Leah had given them, and she gained hope.

“I’ve made up a list of rules for each of us. The first, of course, is exclusivity. In other words, during the time we’re fucking each other, we can’t be fucking anyone else. Any problems with that?”

Leah looked at Beau, but to her shock, it was Charles who said, “Well, actually…”

* * * *

“
You?
You have to be kidding.” Steve couldn’t believe Leah would have had anything to do with the dweeb, but the idea that he had someone else on a string, too, was hard to swallow.

“There is no one now,” Little said. “But there could be someone else at a later point. Is that so hard to believe?”

“Yes,” Beau said.

“Well, it’s true.” He struck a pose, nose in the air. “I have admirers.”

“Then we end our contract, that’s all,” Leah said. “That’s why we can’t become involved. When we do end our relationship, I want to remain friends with you, Charles. I want no hard feelings.”

“Fine.” Charles looked down at the contract. Steve turned his head and read from the side.

Most everything listed made sense. All parties would take care. The men would wear condoms and she would take birth control pills.

“What does this mean, that we won’t engage in anything that makes the other feel uncomfortable?”

She looked flustered. “Well…what it says. I don’t want to worry that you might hurt me when we’re in bed.”

“You see?” Charles pounced. “Even you think one of them might hurt you.”

“That’s not what I meant at all, Charles.” She stared at Beau. “Why do you question that?”

“Because I might want to push the envelope when we’re together. Not to pain, but beyond the missionary position.”

That’s my boy.
They’d learned a thing or two about passion and satisfaction in the past few years. Steve shifted his attention to Leah to see how she would take this tack.

“Okay. I…” She bit her bottom lip. Steve had the sudden urge to suck it into his mouth. What in hell had he done that she found unforgiveable? She looked down and then up at Beau. “I trust you.”

Beau nodded. His eyes darkened as though he could already picture them in bed. Steve could, too. And that was a problem.

“Another thing,” Beau said.

“Christ. Aren’t you happy with just being able to fuck her? I mean look at the woman,” Charles said.

Beau ignored him. “It says that you will divide your time between us. Does that mean we’ll never be together?”

“Hell no. I won’t share a bed with him,” Charles said, shaking his finger at Leah.

“I thought about it,” she said, “but you see how it is. I think what we’re planning will be enough.”

Beau’s lips compressed into a thin line and the stubborn gleam in his eyes showed he wasn’t convinced. “I’d like that option left open. If you haven’t been with two men before, you don’t have any idea how good it can feel.”

Leah’s brows rose as her eyes widened and she licked her lips. Her flash of innocence showed Beau had hit the nail on the head. She’d never been part of a sandwich. God, if only she would consent to being with him and Beau, the places they could take her. They universes they could explore. Whatever he’d done to her saddened him.

“Leah.” He had to try again. If only she knew him now, she’d know he was a different man. Trust came with sex, strange as that seemed. In order to open one’s body, one had also to open one’s heart and soul. If only he could get her to spend time with him, to learn to trust him again.

“Would you ever consider three men?” He felt Beau’s intense gray eyes focused on him with interest, but it was Leah’s reaction he was interested in.
Please consider it.

“I don’t know of a third man I would care to include.”

“What about me?”

“Never.”

“You don’t know me now. You might like me.”

“I don’t care to find out.” She looked cool to the casual observer, but Steve saw fire in her eyes. She was anything but indifferent to him, and as long as she harbored feelings of some sort, even negative feelings, she still cared.

“I see,” he said softly. “You never accepted my apology.”

“No,” she said just as quietly, “I still don’t.”

“What did you do to her?” Charles wanted to know. Steve ignored him.

Without thinking, he said, “Maybe you’ll get to know me better through Beau.”

She bent and took a pen from her pocketbook. “I’m adding an addendum to our contract. Steve is not to have any contact with me during our liaison, nor will there be any conversation about him.”

“Fine with me,” Charles said. “I can’t believe you were going to include either of these brutes. One is one too many by my accounting. I mean, what did I protest for all those years if I intended them to come home and steal the girl I’m sleeping with? And what did
you
—”

“Protest?” Steve heard the word that set him on fire, and that was it. He gave Charles the once-over. “You look about the right age to have been drafted.”

“I’m four-F.”

“You’re four-fucking-F—”

“That’s enough!” Leah glared at him. What had he done, other than call out the fucking coward? “Remember where we are,” she said.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“You should be,” Charles said. “I have flat feet. It’s not my fault.”

“I’m not talking to you,” Steve ground out.

“Leah.” Beau pushed the contract back at her. “This is very flattering. I appreciate that you’re attracted to me, even in a small way, but I can’t sign this contract. Not while you have anything negative in there about my best friend. I’m afraid if we’re together you can’t stop me from mentioning him or end the contract if he happens to come home while we’re there. If you take me, you might have to take him.”

Steve was stunned. Being best friends meant a lot, but passing up the chance to make love with Leah was really expecting too much. He doubted he’d do it for Beau.

Leah stared at Beau in disbelief. “I don’t understand. You’re willing to pass up the opportunity to—”

“Have sex with you, yes.”

“You’re crazy,” Charles said.

“Friends are hard to come by,” Steve said.
Even crazy friends.

“Not that you aren’t beautiful and sexy and everything else. Normally, I’d kill to have the chance to be with you, but”—Beau shrugged—”Steve and I have been through hell together, and no woman is going to separate us.”

She frowned at the table. “I apologize, Beau. Of course I can
stand
to see Steve and hear about him now and then if necessary. Although I hope we have better things to do than talk about friends or anything else.”

“There is also the question of my being your student.”

“There is still time to transfer. There’re three classes in sociology and two that I know of in psych that would be happy to have you enter if you don’t mind catching up.”

“That’s not a problem. How often will we be together a week?”

“Once a week.”

“Four times a week,” Beau countered.

Charles leaned forward. “See here. I don’t have time for that much screwing around.”

“I wasn’t speaking for you,” Beau bit out.

“I don’t know,” Leah said. She bit her bottom lip. Steve could see wheels turning in her head and wondered what she was trying to decide.

“Okay. Once a week with Charles, and four times a week with you. More often if you want it, Charles,” she agreed. “At thirty minutes each.”

Steve snorted out a laugh. Beau grimaced. “You don’t have much optimism for my abilities, do you?”

She rubbed her head as though stroking away a headache. Steve could feel those fingers stroking his nuts and up his dick. He probably
had
felt it at one time. He wished fiercely that he remembered it.

“I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just I have a schedule to meet.”

“You didn’t upset me,” Beau assured her. “But I don’t want time limits on our meetings. They should move naturally.” Steve watched while she made notations to her copy of the contract.

“All right. Okay. Anything else?”

“Nope.” Flashing that damned trademark, dimpled Beau Johnson smile that had won him all the best-looking women around the camps, he stood up straight. “But if something comes up, I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll make these changes and get the contract back to you both,” Leah said, as cool as if she negotiated what to order for dinner.

“I see my student,” Steve said, rising. He looked down at Leah. “Thanks for putting up with me for a few minutes. See you later?” he asked Beau.

“Yeah.” Beau leaned over and kissed Leah’s cheek. Then he slapped Charles on the back and strolled out.

“Mr. Hardin?” A cute brunette looked up at him with big, brown eyes. “I’m here for our lesson.”

If he’d been ten years younger and hadn’t just spent the last few minutes trying to figure out how to quell his hard-on for Leah Morris, Steve might have been attracted by the flirtatious tilt of her head. Now all he could do was sigh and hope she wasn’t so far behind in chemistry that he’d have to spend more than an hour helping her prepare for their test.

He led her to a vacant table in the corner far from the traffic in and out of the door. Before getting started, he turned and looked back. Leah stared across the table at Charles. As though sensing his gaze, she looked up. Crazy as it might have been, he thought he recognized a flash of interest in her gaze. Then it was gone. Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, but if true, that was good, right? A flash was better than nothing.

* * * *

“Leah.” She turned her interest back to Charles. He pursed his lips and stared at her. “We protested against men like them, remember? We held up signs denouncing what they were doing to those poor civilians caught in the crossfire in Vietnam and demanded the war end.”

“I remember.”

“Then why are you so quick to turn your back on all that and sleep with one of them? They were murderers over there. Why would you think they were any different here?” Charles folded his hands and regarded her with disbelief in his eyes.

He made good points. She
had
protested, though her actions were more personal than altruistic. Always the outsider, she had joined Faculty Against the War and taken part in campus protests just to belong. Being part of any college faculty and not taking part in protests would have separated her from the rest of the faculty. She’d spent her life being odd man out. If feeling one with her peers meant she marched a little and chanted a few slogans, it had been a small price to pay. She wasn’t a great fan of the military establishment, but the war was over, and she had her needs now.

“I have my reasons. Besides, Beau isn’t in the service any longer. He’s given up that mentality.”

Charles stared a moment longer then picked up the cup that had sat before him untouched for the past twenty minutes and drained the contents. “I wonder,” he said and then left her at the empty table.

Leah glanced at Beau’s empty chair and then at the clock over the door for the fourth time in ten minutes. He had transferred to a psychology class yesterday, making him no longer her student. Now the class couldn’t end fast enough. “And that’s one reason for the Eastward Movement. Now you can—”

“Don’t you mean the Westward Movement?” one of her students asked.

“What? Oh, yes. The Westward Movement. And that’s why people in the 1940s moved in great—

“Don’t you mean
1840s
?” asked the same annoying student.

“Would you like to lecture today?” Leah asked sweetly.

The girl squirmed. “No, ma’am.”

Leah blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. As you so rightly point out, my mind appears to be wandering. For Monday, read the next two chapters in your text and be prepared for a test. And with that, you may leave.”

The room exploded with chatter and movement, as though everyone wanted out before the crazy woman changed her mind.

“…needs to get laid,” one male student said to another before exiting.

Whether he meant her or not, he was right. It had been close to a year since she’d had sex. And to think that her first experience in what promised to be a few months of plenty would be with the gorgeous, delicious Beau Johnson.

She threw her materials into her briefcase and rushed to the door only to be stopped in her tracks by Charles.

“I caught you!” he pronounced.

Caught me what? Leaving early? Thinking about Beau?
“I’m in a bit of a hurry,” she said.

“I wondered if you want to see a movie tonight.”

“I can’t, Charles. I’m going to be busy.”