Page 37 of Dancing With Lies

No, she’s my friend, Roxie reminded herself. Sex wouldn’t necessarily change that, but it wasn’t a woman she wanted tonight. Although the only man she felt right about having sex with wasn’t that tempting lately either. Well, he wasn’t actually present lately.

Fuck, now she was back on moaning over Nathan again.

“Hey, you seen Wendy?” Emily walked up and asked.

“No, I was looking for her.”

“Oh. I offered to help her out then Dylan distracted me.” Emily’s cheeks turned pink and she looked away.

“I saw that distracting. Wendy’s fine, I did get a message from her at least. She asked me if I wanted to join her.” Roxie laughed, but rolled her eyes. Two long-time friends asking her to a threesome in one night was almost too much.

“Good, she’s made herself at home then.” Emily leaned into Roxie and Roxie put her right arm around her friend. “You tired?”

“I’m always tired lately. I’m like an old woman since the baby was born.”

“You’ll get used to it, eventually,” Roxie assured her and took the hug Emily offered her.

“I’m going to find Dylan. You should have some fun, you know. Nathan’s gone again, probably for good. You deserve to have some fun.”

“No.” Roxie started but she paused. Maybe Emily was right. Lincoln’s face came to mind and she smiled. Maybe one night of fun wasn’t a bad idea after all.

15

Lincoln

“I can’t believe you guys decided this was the kind of house-warming party I needed.” Lincoln looked over at Kai, amusement shining through the stern words.

“Well, you and your lady that isn’t your lady decided to break into my playroom, and then you had a million questions about it.” Kai sipped at the amber liquid in a glass tumbler and squinted at Lincoln. “What better way to explain things than to show you? I thought her idea was brilliant, actually.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Lincoln grumbled and leaned against the kitchen sink. He saw Roxie out of the corner of his eye and wondered if he should apologize for being a dick to her earlier. She left the room before he could move, however, and he shrugged it off. He’d do it later.

“Well, are you going to make an effort or hide in corners all evening, like you did when we were at house parties at MIT?” Kai teased, his black eyebrows arched in amusement.

Kai was a tall man, handsome in that boyish but manly kind of way that women found irresistible. He’d always been outgoing when it came to women, not as tense as Lincoln was. But Lincoln had had secrets back then, secrets he couldn’t share even with a man he considered to be one of his best friends. Secrets he still couldn’t share.

“I’ll give it another try.” Lincoln finally said, his eyes scanning for someone, anyone that might catch his interest. “I’ll catch up with you later.

“See ya,” Kai called and went off in search of something Lincoln wasn’t sure he wanted to think about.

Sex wasn’t abhorrent to Lincoln, it was a vital part of life as far as he was concerned, it just wasn’t the be-all and end-all. Well, it hadn’t been until he found out about Roxie’s former life, before Elmo’s burned down, and what she’d done there. Dylan had told him quite a lot, during a private lunch he’d gone to with the man. It had been a very enlightening conversation and now he couldn’t stop thinking about all the sexual activities that had taken place there. But the woman he’d always seen himself with in those thoughts kept him at arm’s length.

Fuck, what was he supposed to do? Just pick one of her friends and fuck the woman? Plenty had offered already, but none had deeply held his attention.

“Hey, you’re Lincoln, right?” A sultry voice called out from the shadows of his study.

“Yeah, who are you?” He replied and found himself delighted when the woman came out of the shadows in the corner to walk up close to him.

“I’m Kitty.” She smiled an enchanting smile and tilted her head. Her dark hair fanned out from her head, a silky mane that he suddenly wanted to touch. “Are you British?”

“Kind of.” He answered, amused at the age-old question. “My mother was born and raised in England and I spent some time there. I can’t seem to get rid of the accent.”

“Maybe you should stop trying. It’s very sexy.” Her eyes opened a little wider, drawing him in. “You’re really buff, are you a runner?”

She touched his bicep, but only long enough for him to look down and see her fingers there before she drew them away. “I’m a swimmer, one of the reasons for buying this house. I have the world’s biggest pool outside.”

“I see. Kai told me he was on the swim team when he was at MIT, were you teammates?” She stepped a fraction closer, her lips slightly parted, as if he was telling the most interesting story she’d ever heard, but he knew he wasn’t.

With a shrug, he told her what she wanted to hear. “I was the captain of the swim team in high school and at the university. Yeah, Kai, Trevon, and I were all on the swim team together.”