Repercussions (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) Page 2

  Troy parked up the street a ways from Maggie’s home and strolled down the sidewalk, trying to look as if he belonged as he scoped out her house. He had heard the story about how one of her roommates had inherited the house from his aunt and had his best friend move into it with him. But what type of men would invite an unknown woman to move in with them? Did they even conduct a background check on her? If he lived in such a showcase home, he sure as hell would have. Okay, sure, Maggie was clean. Not a blemish would show up on any such check. But still! Alex and Jesse had supposedly known each other since first grade. If they were really desperate for a roommate to help make ends meet, then surely they had other childhood friends who would have jumped at the chance to move in with them. So why Maggie?

  Yeah, she was a knockout with her wavy auburn hair, deep emerald eyes, and drop-dead figure. But Maggie was no fool. If she felt the slightest bit uncomfortable around them, she would be out of there so fast that all they would feel was the breeze caused by her exit. So why did they pick her? Were they really as altruistic as Maggie claimed, or was there a deeper agenda on their part? He was a man, and he knew that any man’s ultimate goal was to get into the pants of a beautiful woman. So if that was the case with her roomies, which one was pursuing her?

  He reminded himself that both men had serious girlfriends. Not only according to Maggie, but both Alex and Jesse had paid separate weeklong visits with her this past summer while she had been visiting her folks for six weeks, and they each confirmed how committed they were to their girlfriend. And speaking of women, what type of woman was confident enough to allow her boyfriend to share a house with a babe like Maggie? Unless the women also lived in that house? But that blew a hole in his supposition that Maggie was posing for nude pictures to pay her share of the rent.

  So what the hell was going on behind those walls? Did the guys know what Maggie was doing to make ends meet? Was that really her motive for posing for those pictures? But they didn’t really look staged. They looked more like a seduction. One that he was positive could have only ended with mind-blowing sex. Though he and Maggie had shared a highly pleasing sex life during their three years together, not once had she evidenced any desire to make a sex tape with him or give him nude pictures of herself. So what had changed? Was she as rudderless as he had been the year after their breakup? All he knew at this point was that if he was going to ultimately save her, he had to have more information, and he seriously doubted that Maggie would be forthcoming with him. So for now he would watch her from a distance and try to find out what was truly going on before he swooped in to rescue her.

  With that thought firmly in mind, he commenced his vigil on the house and its occupants.

  Chapter 2

  Alex opened Maggie’s bedroom door and slipped inside as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the occupants who were sprawled entwined upon her bed in an exhausted stupor. He was violating their closed-door rule that clearly stated that a closed door meant no interruptions no matter what. But since he had violated it once before this past spring and things had turned out exceedingly well for all involved, he had no qualms about violating it again. Especially since he had no intention of disturbing the sleeping lovers. He just wanted to grab Maggie’s camera and slip out without the occupants being any the wiser.

  He had awakened early that morning to find himself alone in his king-size bed. Since he very seldom was without a bedmate, the discrepancy of not having a warm body next to him had brought him wide awake. Grumpy, he had gone downstairs to brew that morning’s pot of coffee. A quick stop outside to gather the morning paper had awarded him with a glimpse of a strangely familiar man who appeared to be lurking across the street.

  In a neighborhood such as theirs, any stranger displaying such aberrant behavior would be cause for a call to the police. But the familiarity of the stranger niggled at him, and Alex wanted to try to make an identification as circumspectly as possible, hence the need for Maggie’s camera with its zoom capability. A window from the room next to Maggie’s at the front of the house should afford the perfect angle to snap a few pictures of the familiar-looking stranger.

  He spied the camera on Maggie’s desk and quickly scooped it up. As he was turning to leave, his arm brushed against a textbook lying upon the desk and sent it crashing to the floor.

  “Wha…” Maggie’s sleepy voice said from the direction of the bed.

  Alex turned toward her to see that Maggie had been jerked into a sitting position by the sound of the thump. The sheet had pooled in her lap, and her bare breasts jiggled slightly as she rubbed her hand over her face in an attempt to clear the cobwebs.

  “Alex?” she murmured with a frown as she tried to focus on him.

  “Shh, I didn’t mean to startle you, sweetheart,” Alex whispered, and then, not able to help himself, he quickly strode over to her side of the bed and leaned down to give her a quick kiss. “Go back to sleep,” he said softly as he gently stroked her downy cheek.

  “Okay,” she mumbled sleepily as she lay back down and snuggled up against Jess, who continued to sleep like the dead and hadn’t been disturbed by the slight commotion.

  Tiptoeing out of the room, Alex gently closed the door behind him and hastened into the unoccupied bedroom in the front of the house, which was mostly used for storage. Slipping to the window, he slowly parted the curtains just enough to offer a view outside.

  Damn, the stranger was gone!

  He did a quick scan up and down the street in an attempt to locate him, to no avail.

  Shaking his head, he wondered if in his caffeine-deprived state he had imagined a man who looked suspiciously like Maggie’s ex-boyfriend lurking around outside their home. Yeah, he had to be imagining it. After all, Troy went to college over 2,000 miles away. What in the world would he be doing here in the middle of the fall term?

  Nevertheless, Alex decided to leave the camera in the spare room and to start keeping a morning vigil, just in case. After all, it might not be Troy, but it could very well be a thief staking out the neighborhood. It wouldn’t hurt to try to get a picture of the stranger, because he was sure that he had seen someone.

  * * * *

  Attempting to get his heart rate under control, Troy found himself shaking at the close call of being spotted by Alex. He had been watching the house unobtrusively for two months now, usually late evening and early morning in an attempt to see if Maggie brought anyone home with her or to catch her lover leaving the next day. But so far, the only people who came and went were the three roommates. Alex and Jesse didn’t even bring their girlfriends home with them. And that was odd in and of itself. What man didn’t have his girlfriend spend the night with him occasionally? Or spend the night at her place? But so far, his vigil had shown that the three of them slept alone in that huge house every single night.

  Perhaps he should start following them on the weekend. But so far, although their weekend habits proved strange, they also appeared to be quite innocent in nature. Sometimes Maggie left the house with both of the men and sometimes with just one of them. At times the men drove off together and Maggie appeared to spend the day home alone. And whoever was left at home didn’t appear to bring in outside company.

  So where were their girlfriends, and where was the other guy that Maggie had intimated that she was seeing on the Fourth of July when he had made an abortive attempt at getting back together with her?

  Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe she had lied about a boyfriend because she didn’t want to give them another chance. And maybe that “photo shoot” he had downloaded was a one-time thing. But it meant the photos were still out there somewhere, and his stomach clenched at the idea of those pictures going public. The song from the J. Geils Band, “Centerfold,” was playing on an endless loop in his head, and he feared the pictures going viral. If nothing else, he had to determine if there was another set of them out there somewhere and destroy them somehow. Only then could he rest easy. This was no longer about getting Maggie back, it was a
bout protecting her. Everything else was secondary to that primary goal. And he would succeed!

  Chapter 3

  With Halloween right around the corner, Maggie dove into coming up with the perfect costume for herself and the guys. This was one of her all-time favorite holidays, and she had always enjoyed cutting loose and dressing up. In the past it was all about pretending to be someone else for a night and letting go of her natural inhibitions. Well, surprise! Not only had she let go of them in the past five months, but she was deliriously happy. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined herself sexually and emotionally involved with two wonderful and gorgeous men at the same time. And when she said “at the same time,” that’s exactly what she meant. Threesomes had become SOP in their household. Okay, so they still indulged in one-on-one encounters with each other, but sometimes a threesome was what the doctor ordered. Hence the costumes she had come up with for the three of them to wear to The Inferno the Saturday before Halloween for the annual Spooktacular Mayhem Party.

  “You guys are going to love the costumes I picked out,” Maggie announced with a grin as she joined them in the living room, toting two large bags.

  “Why did we give her carte blanche to pick out our costumes?” Jess asked Alex in a worried aside as he took in the mischievous glint in Maggie’s eyes.

  “Because she’s our girlfriend and we want to continue having sex with her,” Alex replied sotto voce as he also eyed Maggie worriedly.

  Maggie ignored both men as she set the bags down on the coffee table and started digging through them. “Alex, you’re going to have to complement your outfit with dress clothes,” Maggie said distractedly.

  “Dress clothes?” Alex asked as his dark eyebrows went up.

  “Dress pants, dress shirt, and tie,” Maggie clarified.

  “Why?” he asked, curious.

  “Because,” Maggie said as her hand emerged from the bag clutching a white lab coat and stethoscope, “you’re going as a doctor.”

  “Ah,” Alex breathed, immensely relieved, as he reached forward for the costume.

  “So am I his nurse?” Jess asked in a peculiar voice.

  “Nope. I’m going as the slutty nurse,” Maggie said as she pulled out a very short white nurse’s uniform and a set of garter hose.

  “Ah,” both men breathed in satisfaction as they eyed the garment.

  “So what am I?” Jess wanted to know, his eyes glued to her costume as he pondered all the possibilities.

  “You are going as our patient,” Maggie said as she tossed him a hospital gown.

  Jess caught it automatically and then frowned as he examined it. “Where are the ties? There are no ties or snaps or anything on this thing,” he complained, truly worried now.

  “You don’t need them with this,” Maggie said with a grin as she pulled out the last item and held it up for their inspection. Dangling from her graceful hand were nude leggings with an enormous foam butt sewed on the backside.

  Silence greeted her big reveal, and this time Maggie began to feel worried. Jess was a jokester, so she thought this would be the perfect costume for him. She had wracked her brain trying to come up with the perfect costume theme that would reflect the true nature of their relationship on a night when most people played make believe. Since they couldn’t flaunt that they were in a polygamous relationship with each other, a Halloween party had seemed the perfect opportunity for her to show affection for both men at the same time in a public place. But had she miscalculated?

  Biting her lip, she held her breath as she awaited their reaction. Jess slowly reached out and took the leggings from her hand and examined them closely with Alex looking on. And then Jess broke into huge guffaws while Alex started to grin in approval.

  “This is perfect, Mags,” Jess gasped out as he wiped at the tears of laughter running down his chiseled cheeks.

  “I agree.” Alex nodded. “But we are definitely going to have to practice our roles if we want to be convincing.”

  “Our roles?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes, our roles. You are a slutty nurse, so when you aren’t trying to chase Jess down with a giant rectal thermometer, you should be rubbing up against me,” he replied with a credibly straight face.

  “Hey!” Jess exclaimed indignantly. “What makes you think I would refuse a rectal exam from a slutty nurse?”

  “Oh, you’re right,” Alex said after he mused upon Jess’s comment. “No red-blooded male would refuse a rectal exam from a slutty nurse.”

  “Unless he’s gay, then he would want one from the hot male doctor,” Jess pointed out as he snagged the stethoscope off Alex’s lap and dangled it in front of him as he waggled his eyebrows.

  “Good thing you’re bi, then,” Alex said with a grin. “That way the hot doctor and the slutty nurse both get to give you a thorough exam.” He licked his lips suggestively as he leaned toward him. Jess’s own eyes turned languid as he met Alex halfway for a deep kiss.

  “So should I just watch you two practice your roles or do I get to participate?” Maggie’s hoarse words cut into their moment, and they broke apart to look at her. They both noticed with satisfaction that Maggie’s eyes had glazed with lust, like they always did when she watched her two bisexual lovers enjoying each other sexually.

  “What say we each put on our costumes and do a little role playing to practice our parts?” Alex asked.

  Maggie nodded eagerly and scooped up her outfit before hurrying out of the room. Alex slowly rose to follow but paused when he noticed that Jess was still sitting on the couch.

  “Aren’t you going to change into your costume?” Alex asked him.

  “No need,” Jess replied with a grin. “All I have to be is naked under this gown. I think the fake butt can wait until the party, don’t you?”

  “Definitely,” Alex replied heatedly and hurried out of the room to change into a dress shirt that he wouldn’t mind being destroyed if his lovers got carried away with the little game they were about to play.

  Chapter 4

  “What are you doing?”

  Alex was so startled to hear Jess’s voice from the doorway to the storage room in the front of the house that he dropped the camera that he was aiming through a slit in the curtains. Thankfully, the camera strap was around his neck, so Maggie’s gift from her parents didn’t shatter on the hardwood floor.

  “Damn it, Jess!” he exclaimed angrily. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

  “Well, if you weren’t acting so funny, I wouldn’t have to sneak up on you.”

  “I thought you were sleeping. Where’s Maggie?” Alex feebly tried for a change of subject.

  “She’s still fast asleep.”

  “So why aren’t you, too? I thought we wore each other out earlier with our little role-playing game,” Alex said, still groping for that subject change.

  “Well, obviously we aren’t as good as you are, otherwise you’d still be fast asleep, too. And if I hadn’t had to go to the bathroom, I’d still be in bed with Maggie with no idea that you had gotten up. So, what are you doing in here with Maggie’s camera and,” Jess added as he glanced at the folding TV table sitting under the window that hadn’t been there the last time he had come into this room, “are those binoculars? Who are you spying on?” He stepped forward and tried to brush open the curtains so he could see what was within line of sight of this window.

  Alex’s hand came down forcefully on Jesse’s, and he pushed him away from the window with a straightened arm. “Damn it, Jess. He’ll see you!”

  “Who will see me?” Jess asked disbelievingly. “What the fuck is going on, Alex?”

  When Alex only stood there biting his upper lip in indecision, Jess began to get even more worried. “Please tell me you’re bird-watching. That you are talking about a male bird that’s perched on a tree limb outside this window. Please, God, don’t tell me that you’re checking out some other guy!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Alex snapped. “You are the only guy I�
��ve ever checked out. Do you really think I’d start checking out another? Is there something you’re not telling me? Have you been checking out other men? Oh! You have! I can see it by how your eyes are widening! Talk about a Freudian slip! Or is that called ‘projection’? I should ask Maggie. After all, she’s the one who takes all those psych classes just for fun.”

  “What the fuck!” Jess interrupted Alex’s tirade. “You know I’ve never cheated on you or been attracted to any other guy. Fine, whatever! You want to accuse me of something, go right ahead. But I don’t have to listen to it. I was just wondering where you were and saw the door to this room open when I was about to head downstairs to look for you. Hope you enjoy the view of whatever it is you’re looking at. I’m going back to our room and climbing back in bed with our girlfriend. In fact, I’m feeling hungry, and I know just what it is that I’m going to eat!” And with that less-than-subtle sexual innuendo, Jess stomped out of the room.

  “Whew,” Alex sighed under his breath, “that was a close one.”

  “Hah!” Jess’s voice snapped from the hallway before he stalked back into the room. “I knew you were trying to distract me from whatever it is you’re up to. Now either tell me what’s going on or hand me the binoculars so I can find out for myself!”

  Alex wavered with indecision for a long moment. Since he had thought he had spotted Troy a week and a half ago, he had been trying to get another glimpse to verify his suspicions. But his suspicions made no sense. Okay, both he and Jess had agreed that Troy would love to hook back up with Maggie after they had both met him over the summer and made their own observations about her ex. But it was crazy to think that Troy would follow Maggie here. He hadn’t struck either of the men as deranged, unbalanced, or having a stalker’s mentality. He had seemed more placid and willing to let Maggie spread her wings while he waited patiently for her to come around, which they fervently hoped never happened.