from Tony’s shoulder, hitting Mark…again.
“ Ow . That’s twice you’ve done that today. I think you broke it this time.”
“Well, what did you expect?” Tony defended her. “You’re about as tactful as a train wreck.”
She slipped out from between the two of them, disassembling the Hailey sandwich they’d created. Mark was holding his nose. Tony stepped in, pulled Mark’s hand away and palpated his nose.
“Tactful wasn’t cutting it,” Mark argued.
“It’s not broken,” Tony announced disgust clear in his voice. “It’s not even bleeding.” He turned to Hailey. “Look, I’m sorry. This isn’t going the way we planned. Let’s start over.”
Hailey laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Her suave, sensitive, hotter-than-hell men were definitely out of their comfort zone…whatever it was they were trying to do. “You actually planned this?”
“Yeah…kind of,” Tony answered lamely.
Hailey didn’t know what to say. It would help if she could figure out what the hell was going on.
“Give us a break,” Mark said. “We’ve never done this before.”
“And I’m not sure what you’re trying to do now ,” Hailey replied.
Tony looked around, as if searching for something, then grabbed her hand and tugged her toward a lounge chair. “Let’s sit down.”
Hailey followed obediently, wondering where this was going. When they were sitting next to each other on the chair, he looked up at Mark, who was standing over them. “Are you just gonna stand there?”
“I’m not getting near her again…not today. Every time I do, she hits me.”
“Not on purpose,” Hailey said. “You surprised me.”
“I don’t care. Try breaking his nose. It’s ugly enough that no one will notice.”
“Kissing her on the plane was not part of the plan,” Tony said.
“Hey, you let her wrap those little hands around your thigh and lay on your cock for seven hours, and then we’ll talk about the plan.”
“Watch your language,” Tony warned.
“We’re talking to her about three-ways and you’re worried about my language?”
Hailey gasped. A three-way? They wanted to have sex with her at the same time? They’d lost it. They were insane. Jake would kill them if he knew what they were proposing.
No, he’d torture them, skin them alive and then kill them.
No, he’d be too angry to take his time with torture. He’d just flat-out kill them.
“Shut up,” she snapped, trying to keep her voice low. “Both of you. If Jake hears you, he won’t wait to put you on the next flight out of here. He’ll just toss you into the Pacific.” She stood, careful not to bump Mark’s nose again, and pointed at the cottage. “In there. Now .”
They followed her silently inside. She closed both doors and left the lights off so no one could see them through the glass.
“Sit down,” she said.
They sat on the futon, their positions identical. They leaned forward, legs spread, arms resting on their thighs with hands clasped between. She faced them, fists on hips, feet shoulder-width apart.
“Now, I’m fairly certain what we’re experiencing here is a failure to communicate. So I want you to start from the beginning, and please feel free to define any terms that I might misinterpret—such as ‘three-way.’”
“We both—” Mark started.
“Not you,” Hailey interrupted. She pointed at Tony. “You.”
“Do you think we both ended up in Albuquerque because we like the chile?” Tony asked.
“Yes,” she answered. “That and the skiing.”
Tony shook his head. “We followed you. We kept waiting for you to show a preference for one of us. You didn’t. You dated other men. We waited. We figured if we waited long enough, you’d fall for one of us.”
“Fall for you?” she asked in disbelief. “You’ve always treated me like a little sister. You took care of me. Both of you.”
“If we touched our sisters the way we touch you, we’d be in jail on suspicion of