Nicole Edwards - Zane

Now? Well, now Zane looked forward to those moments. V was a passionate woman, and despite her reluctance with men in her past, she gave herself freely to whatever Zane asked of her. There’d only been a brief hesitation that very first time, but that had presumably disappeared the second Beau had kissed her.

Damn. He was going to have to stop thinking about that night, or he was sure they wouldn’t make it through dinner. He hadn’t been lying to V when he told her that Beau was on his way with food. His friend had called a short while ago and told him he was on his way. When Zane remembered he didn’t have any food, he’d asked Beau to bring something, he didn’t care what.

As though summoned directly from Zane’s thoughts, there was a knock on his front door and Zane turned away from V to let Beau in. He slapped his friend on the back and grabbed one of the sacks from his hand and carried it to the kitchen.

It could’ve been because they were starving, or because they were all three ready to see where the night would lead, but they finished dinner in record time. While V cleaned the dishes, Zane helped clear the table and grabbed more beers while Beau messed with the sound system in the living room.

The stereo came on, and Beau hooted and laughed, turning his attention to Zane. “Dude, seriously? Thrift shop? I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Zane laughed, knowing Beau loved to give him shit about his choice in music. He was a country boy and yes, most of what was on his iPod consisted of country music, but he liked variety.

Zane carried the beers into the living room while Beau began flipping through the music on his iPod. After fifteen minutes of Beau’s ridicule, thankfully, he grew bored with teasing him about his choice in music before putting on Jason Aldean in the man’s warped attempt at setting the mood.

To his surprise, V took the seat on the couch next to Beau when she joined them, and the two had conspired to give Zane a hard time about his music, both of them laughing and even touching on more than one occasion. They were friends, that was clear and although V tried to keep herself closed off to most people, it was evident they’d become closer during Zane’s stint in the hospital. Rather than jealousy, Zane felt a sense of comfort knowing that his best friend had been taking care of V while he couldn’t.

They’d talked daily when Beau came to visit, and his friend had kept an eye on V at his request, but it didn’t appear to have been a hardship on either one of them. He wasn’t going to think about the things that they hadn’t realized were going on during that time though. He was determined not to ruin this night with his unresolved anger issues, and the mere thought of V and her debilitating panic attacks was a definite trigger.

“The way you’re looking at us, you’d think we were naked,” Beau joked, causing Zane to look over at him.

“Maybe y’all should be,” he replied, tipping his beer bottle to his lips and trying to pretend the idea hadn’t crossed his mind a time or two in the last hour.

“Have a preference on which of us goes first?” Beau asked.

Zane tilted his head to study his friend. It was interesting to see how relaxed Beau was around V. Normally, when he was anywhere near a woman, his face was red, and he usually never spoke more than two or three words at a time. Never had he been daring the way he was when she was around.

“I have a preference,” V added, grinning.

Zane noticed she didn’t seem to be nearly as nervous as she’d been when they got back to his house. After what had happened at his parents’, he’d expected her anxiety to be sky rocketing, but somehow she’d managed to relax. Maybe she was just looking to ignore everything else that was going on the same way he was.

“Yeah? Who’d you like to see naked first?” Zane figured he already knew the answer to that.

“Beau,” she replied, grinning from ear to ear.

“You sure about that, darlin’?” Beau teased. “I’d hate for you to drop Zane like a bad habit once you get to see me naked again.”

Zane watched, his lips smirking against the lip of his beer bottle as he watched the two of them. “A bad habit, huh?”

V glanced back and forth between the two of them, and Zane watched her closely. She was coming up with an idea, and he was interested in seeing what that devious mind of hers decided to do about the two of them.

“You’re right,” she agreed with Beau and Zane laughed, but waited for her to finish. “I think it’s only fair that you dole out your sexiness in stages. Maybe take turns.”

“What? You want us to do a strip tease right here?” Zane questioned her, sitting his beer on the side table beside the chair he was currently occupying.

“Great idea,” she replied, acting as though she hadn’t already had it all planned out.

“Who goes first?” Beau asked, sounding entirely too confident. At least in comparison to what Zane was used to.

This was likely going to get good.

♂♀♂

V knew the alcohol couldn’t be what fortified her nerves because she’d only had one beer and was working on her second.

For some reason, she just felt comfortable with Beau and Zane. Or maybe she just wanted to forget about all of the shit that had gone on that day, or in recent months. She knew what was coming, and for some reason, she wanted to get there soon.

Beau was in a good mood, laughing and joking, and it was contagious, making her want to tease the two of them. It wasn’t like the first time when the three of them were so worried about where they were supposed to put their hands. This just felt – it was strange to say it – natural.

“You get to go first,” V stated, looking over at Beau. “But before you get your freak on, I want the two of you to stand in the middle of the room. I want to see the goods before I take them for a test drive.”

Zane’s laugh tickled her ears making her smile even more. This was what she’d been missing for so long. They weren’t worried about what happened before, or what might happen tomorrow. This was just three friends, having a good time and enjoying each other’s company.

Beau stood, moving the wooden coffee table away from where they would need to stand in order to be in front of her. V pulled her feet up beneath her and pretended she was getting settled in for a good show. Zane took his time getting to his feet, taking another long pull on his beer and watching her intently.

The delectable, teasing smirk on his face did marvelous things to her insides.

“So, are we being graded on form?” Beau’s tone was serious, but his grin spoke of something much more carnal than V expected. “I’ve never done this strip tease thing, so I want to make sure I understand the rules.” Shaking his hand, his thumb waggling in Zane’s direction, Beau looked back at her “He’s probably got a lot more experience at this than I do, so I want it to be fair.”

“Yep,” V confirmed. “Form, execution, and style.”

“Got it. You gonna grade him on a curve? He looks a little frail these days.”

Zane’s laugh boomed through the living room. “Fuck off and get naked, bro.”

Beau’s chuckle warmed V even more. Considering Zane had lost some weight while he’d been in the hospital, it wasn’t obvious to anyone who didn’t know him. Standing next to Beau, he was still just as impressive as she’d always thought him to be.

Although Beau was close to six and a half feet, Zane wasn’t but an inch or two shorter. Granted, Beau was a big man. V had no idea how much he possibly weighed, but she knew it was a considerable amount, especially since he was all muscle. There couldn’t be an ounce of fat on either man. Unlike her. V was thin, but she probably didn’t have much muscle, aside from maybe her arms from cleaning. The rest of her was soft, but she didn’t mind. It helped define the difference between her and these men.

“Shirt. Off.” V pointed to Beau, trying to use a stern tone but failing as she laughed.

Beau grabbed his polo shirt with one hand behind his neck and deftly pulled it over his head. The move was sexy as hell, and the ripped, defined body he revealed was even more so. Her breath hitched, and she wondered whether they heard her. She purposely ogled Beau’s body, feeling Zane’s eyes on her.

“With a little hard work,” Beau looked over at Zane, “you could have a body like this one day.”

Zane reared back and punched Beau in the arm, a deep rumbling laugh echoing through the room. V watched as Beau glanced down at his arm, then back at Zane. “Why’d you pinch me?”

That got all three of them laughing.

“Y’all aren’t naked yet,” V reminded them when they settled down.

“Well, hell, little lady. You just had to ask.” Beau joked, toeing off his boots in a hurry, then ripping his socks off of his feet before grabbing the front of the waistband on his jeans, releasing the button with ease.

“Slow down, speed demon. We don’t want this party to end before it gets started,” Zane joked. “I think it’s only fair that we get to sample the goods before we give away all our secrets.”

“Ahhh. Good idea.” Beau pinned V with a stare, making her squirm. “You’re turn.”

V felt the heat infuse her body, her skin warming, her mouth dry. Looking up at them, both clad only in their jeans while V had on all of her clothes, with the exception of shoes. “I’ve got a better idea,” V said, glancing across the room and then back at the two men in front of her.

Zane physically turned, following her gaze to the far side of the house where his pool table sat innocently in the corner.

“You want to play pool?” he asked, sounding pleased with the idea.

“No?” She questioned as she stood from her seat. “I’ll even give you boys a chance, and I’ll let you put your shirts back on just to make it fair.”

“You ever see her play pool?” Beau asked Zane.

“No. You?” Zane answered, both men acting like she wasn’t standing right there.

“Nope.”

“All right. You’re on.” Zane agreed, and walked over to his dresser to retrieve a shirt while Beau pulled his shirt back on over his head.

“What are the rules?” Beau asked when he pulled a pool stick from the rack on the wall.

V did the same while Zane pushed past her, brushing his body intimately against hers as he reached for the last stick on the wall.

“It’s simple,” she explained. “You’ll get two options on a shot to make, one from each of us. You choose which one you want. If you make it, the turn moves to the next person. If you miss, the person whose shot you selected gets to tell you which item of clothing to remove.”

V thought that was a pretty good game considering she’d made it up on the fly. Based on the grins she received from both men, they liked the idea as well.

“Who goes first?” Zane was apparently eager to start, rubbing the blue chalk on the end of his pool stick.

“You can. It’s your table and all,” she replied warmly.

The game ensued with Zane going first. V and Beau offered the shots he could select from, and Zane chose Beau’s. Making the shot, they decided Beau would go next. The same occurred and then it was V’s turn. She was surprised at the easy shots they offered, and she made hers with ease. When two more rounds went the same as the first, she glanced over at the two men skeptically. Someone should’ve had to remove something by now. Although she was glad it wasn’t her.

“Ok, no more easy stuff. Let’s make this interesting,” Zane stated, taking a sip of the beer he’d grabbed from the refrigerator.

“No problem.” Beau glanced over at V, then gave Zane a much more difficult shot than before. V offered the same level of difficulty and the two of them stood back and watched. To her delight, Zane missed the shot he’d selected, which was the one she’d told him to take.

When he asked, she told him the shirt had to go, and the playing resumed. Within a few minutes, Zane and Beau were both standing in their underwear – boxers for Beau, boxer briefs for Zane – and V still had on every stitch of her clothes.

“You’re a pool hustler,” Beau accused as he slipped over to the refrigerator and retrieved another beer for her and him. “You sneaky woman.”

V smiled. Sometimes it felt good to be underestimated.

“Time for the gloves to come off,” Zane grinned, downing the last of his beer and turning toward the table.

He wasn’t kidding. Both Zane and Beau gave her choices of near impossible shots, but she made them both after they dared her to. They made one more round and both men kept the last stitch of their clothes on, so when it was her turn again, V purposely missed the shot Zane had offered. Her shirt abruptly came off, with his help of course.