The Birthday Gift

Lynn LaFleur

What does a man give the woman of his
dreams for her birthday? Her fantasy, of course. But when Amanda admits to her
husband that she’d like to be part of a ménage a trois, Jake isn’t sure if he
could ever share his wife with another man.

Then his cousin Patrick comes for a visit.

Ellora’s Cave Publishing

www.ellorascave.com

The Birthday Gift

ISBN 9781419932427

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Birthday Gift Copyright © 2003
Lynn LaFleur

Edited by Raelene Gorlinsky

Cover art by Syneca

Electronic book publication 2003

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This book is a work of fiction and any
resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely
coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and
used fictitiously.

He’d been
thinking about it for almost a week. Part of him wanted to do anything to
please the woman he adored. Another part of him…

Jake picked
up his mug of cooling coffee and took a sip. He’d come outside shortly after
sunrise to sit at the round glass table beneath the huge oak tree in his
backyard. It was the perfect place to think, especially before his wife awoke.
He liked being alone in the early mornings. It gave him the chance to plan the
day on his horse ranch, think about what he needed to do first, and rehash what
he’d accomplished the previous day.

It also gave
him the chance to formulate his plan.

If he went
through with this, he’d have to do it soon. Patrick had been here a week and
would be leaving on Sunday. He was the only man Jake could ask to do this. They
shared the same blood, and a closeness that Jake doubted many men experienced.

But would his
cousin be willing?

He and
Patrick had experienced some wild times together. Jake smiled to himself as he
remembered one of the wildest—a four-couple orgy during their sophomore year in
college. While they’d each had sex with different women that night, they hadn’t
shared a woman at the same time. Jake didn’t know if Patrick would even
want
to do something like that.

He couldn’t
imagine Patrick
not
wanting to make love with a woman as beautiful and
sexy as Amanda. With her curly blonde hair, huge blue eyes, and incredible
body, he couldn’t imagine
any
man not wanting to make love to Amanda.

The sound of
the sliding glass door opening made Jake glance over his shoulder. He watched
his cousin walk toward the table. Looking at Patrick made Jake feel as if he
were looking in a mirror. Jake possessed the same dark brown hair, chocolate
eyes, and muscular build as his cousin. Jake’s and Patrick’s fathers were
identical twins, and they’d passed their looks down to their sons. Jake kept
his hair shoulder-length while Patrick’s hung halfway down his back; Jake had a
mustache, while a mustache and neatly trimmed beard covered Patrick’s lower
face. Other than those two differences, someone who didn’t know them well would
have a hard time telling them apart.

“Morning,”
Patrick said as he sat across from Jake.

“Mornin’.”

“You’re up
early.”

“I like
early.”

“Early’s the
only time around here when a person can stand to be outside.”

Jake
chuckled. Patrick lived outside of Aspen and preferred the cool weather of
Colorado to the hot North Texas summer. “The heat keeps the blood flowing
smooth.”

“The heat
makes a person crazy. You and Amanda will never give me a second cousin ‘cause
you can’t stand to get close to each other.”

“Hey, don’t
push for a second cousin yet. We’ve only been married two years and we aren’t
ready to start a family. But getting close to Amanda is no problem. Air
conditioning is a wonderful invention.” He grinned. “And we have a big ceiling
fan over our bed.”

“I’ve noticed
you have a ceiling fan in every room of the house.”

“Sex isn’t
just for the bedroom.”

“True.”
Patrick took a mug from the tray in the middle of the table and poured coffee
from the thermos-style carafe. “You’re a lucky man, cuz. Amanda’s really
gorgeous, as well as sweet. I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to meet her
before now.”

“Me too. I
wish you could’ve been at our wedding. You were supposed to be my best man.”

“My lungs had
other ideas. It was a lousy time for a bout of bronchitis. But I’m here now,
and I’m glad I finally got to meet Amanda. It’s obvious by the way she looks at
you how much she loves you. Although why, I’ll never understand.”

“She has good
taste.”

“Shit. Don’t
make me sick so early in the morning.”

“You’re just
jealous.”

“You’re damn
right I am. I’m a year older than you. I was supposed to find someone like
Amanda first.”

“No
prospects?”

Patrick shook
his head.

“Man, you own
a ski resort. You have beautiful women around you all the time.”

“Getting laid
and having someone to love are two very different things.”

“Yeah, they
are. But don’t ever give up on finding that special woman, Pat.”

“Oh, I
won’t.” He grinned. “If
you
conned a woman into falling for you, it’ll
be a cinch for
me
to do that.” Patrick sipped his coffee. “Seriously,
cuz, you’re a lucky man. You have a wife who loves you. You’re building a
business doing something you love. You have a great place to live, even if it
is too hot.”

“It’s only
hot in the summer. The weather is great the rest of the year.”

“But no
snow.”

“We have
snow…every three or four years.”

Leaning back
in his chair, Patrick propped one ankle on the opposite knee. “We didn’t have
any snow when we were growing up in San Diego either, but I love it. I don’t
ever want to live any place that doesn’t have snow.”

“What if Ms.
Right shows up at your lodge and lives in Florida?”

Patrick
rubbed his chin. “Florida, huh? And she’s definitely Ms. Right?”

“Definitely,”
Jake said with a grin.

“No problem.
I’ll just use all my considerable charm and convince her to stay in Colorado.”
He returned Jake’s grin and took another sip of coffee. “So, what’s on your
agenda today?”

“I have to
pick up some supplies in town and run a couple of errands this afternoon.
There’s a guy coming over about ten who’s interested in Texas Thunder.
Hopefully, he’ll bring his checkbook.”

“First sale?”

Jake nodded.
“The first of many, I hope.”

Patrick set
his mug on the table. “Are things tight for you? I can lend you some money if
you—”

“No,” Jake
said firmly.

Patrick
frowned. “Don’t pull that macho shit on me, cuz. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure
just because you need some help until things get better.”

“I don’t…”
Jake stopped and ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t want to hurt
Patrick’s feelings, but his pride wouldn’t let his cousin bail him out of a
jam. His ego already suffered from having to live off Amanda’s commissions
instead of being the major breadwinner. “Thanks for the offer, but we’re okay.
Amanda’s done pretty good with commissions. In fact, she’s showing a house
today that should be a sure thing, according to her. Her commission on it will
be close to thirty thousand.”

Patrick
released a long whistle. “For one house? Not bad.”

“Nope, not
bad at all.”

“If it falls
through or you change your mind—”

“You’ll be
the first to know, I promise.”

Patrick
refilled his mug and took a sip of the steaming coffee. “Will any of your
errands take you close to a store where I can buy a birthday gift for Amanda?”

Jake stopped
in the act of picking up his mug. “Birthday gift?”

“I know
Friday’s her birthday. She’s been great to me and I’d like to get her a gift.”
He snapped his fingers. “I know. I could get her something to add to her
Garfield collection. Or is that collection special to the two of you?”

“It’s
special, but not exclusively ours. Her friends add to it all the time, and her
mom always sends her something at Christmas.” Jake cleared his throat.
“Actually, I do have a gift in mind that you can give her.”

“What is it?”

Beating
around the bush had never been Jake’s way, especially with Patrick. He figured
the best way to tell his cousin would be to simply say it. “Sex.”

Patrick
almost choked on the coffee he’d just sipped. He stared at Jake for a moment,
his eyes wide. Slowly, he lowered his mug back to the table. “You want to run
that by me again?”

“I want you
to be part of a threesome.”

“You’re
joking, right?” He shifted in his chair and laughed without the least bit of
humor. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m
absolutely serious.” Jake leaned forward and rested his folded arms on the
table. “A couple of months ago, Amanda and I were talking about sexual
fantasies…you know, just kidding around with each other after sex. She told me
her fantasy is to be with two guys at once. I want to give her that for her
birthday.”

“Wait a
minute, wait a minute.” Patrick held up one hand. “You want me to fuck your
wife
?”

“Honestly?
No. I don’t want another man to ever touch her. She’s the love of my life, my
whole
life. I like knowing I’m the only man in her bed. But this is something she
wants, so I want to give it to her.” He looked down at the table for a moment
before gazing at his cousin. “You’re the only guy I could ask to do this, Pat,
the only guy I would
trust
to do this. We may only be cousins, but we’re
as close as brothers, even if we don’t get the chance anymore to see each other
but every few years. I’d never let another man touch my wife.”

“Shit.”
Patrick closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “You’ve blown me away, Jake. I
never expected anything like this.”

“We’ve done
some pretty wild things, Pat.”

Patrick
looked at Jake again. “Yeah, we have, but that was a long time ago, and we’ve
never done a threesome. And you’ve never been married. Plus I just met her a
week ago. Hell, man, she may not want me anywhere near her.”

“She likes
you, Pat, and she feels comfortable with you. I couldn’t even suggest this if I
didn’t believe Amanda would be okay with it.” A sudden thought occurred to
Jake, something that he hadn’t previously considered. “Do you have some kind of
moral hang-up about having sex with a married woman?”

“No, nothing
like that. I’m certainly no saint when it comes to sex. I just never expected
something like this from
you
. You’re crazy about Amanda.”

“Yes, I am,
which is why I’m asking you to help me fulfill her fantasy. I want to make her
happy.”

Jake waited
while Patrick once again picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. He knew that
look in his cousin’s eyes…that look that said Patrick was thinking, studying
the situation from every angle. It was a trait that had helped make Patrick’s
ski lodge a huge success.

“Let me get
all this straight,” Patrick said. “I’ve been here a week now. You haven’t
bothered to introduce me to any women, so you know I haven’t been laid since
I’ve been here. With all the expansion work on the lodge and the crazy hours
I’ve been keeping, I haven’t exactly been burning up the sheets at home lately
either. Now you’re asking me if I want to have sex with a beautiful, sexy,
willing woman.” He paused. “She
is
willing, isn’t she?”

“She will be
once we start on her.”

“Damn, man,”
Patrick said with a groan, “I’m getting a hard-on.”

Jake grinned.
“So, you’ll do it?”

Patrick
leaned forward in his chair. “Is this wild, uninhibited, anything-we-want-to-do
sex?”

“It’s
anything-
she
-wants-to-do sex, which will probably be pretty wild and
uninhibited.”

“Is anything
taboo? Is there something she doesn’t like?”

“If there is,
I haven’t found it yet.”

Patrick once
more leaned back in his chair. “When do we do this?”

“Friday
evening. I have everything planned…”