If that’s what it took to give her this one incredible afternoon of mind-blowing sex, then so be it. She deserved a little pleasure in her otherwise dull and proper life.
Luke had only minutes ago given her a sweet, lingering kiss before explaining that he needed to finish installing the security system. He’d refused her second offer of help and tugged his jeans on, then disappeared into the living room. She’d realized as he left that they hadn’t even eaten lunch that day, and she decided that as soon as she’d had a few more minutes to savor the moment, she’d get up and make something for them. Jane rolled over onto her belly and stared out the window, smiling at nothing, when the phone rang.
She reached for the receiver on the nightstand, annoyed to have her perfect afternoon interrupted.
“Hello?”
“Spill it, Jane. What’s the story on you and Luke Nicoletti?”
It was Jennifer or Lacey—their voices were nearly identical…. Definitely Jennifer. Lacey had already cornered Jane at the party with that very same question.
“What makes you think there is a scoop?”
“You disappear into the bathroom with him, then Heather walks in on you about to get it on?”
Oh right, Jane had somehow managed to forget about that. She briefly imagined what her sisters’ reactions might be if they knew what she’d just spent the day doing with Luke, and a smile spread across her lips.
“It’s just a little fling, that’s all. Nothing serious.”
“But isn’t he, like, your bodyguard?”
“Personal security specialist.”
“Oh. Well, I guess that’s okay. I mean, um, I just didn’t think a guy like him and a girl like you would be interested in each other.”
“You mean, you didn’t think he’d be interested in me.”
“No! I mean, you did write that Sex Factor book, telling everyone to stop having sex. I just thought you didn’t like sex.”
Jane grimaced as she sank back into her pillows and tugged the sheet up against her chest. She’d always thought of herself as a voice of reason in a sex-obsessed culture, but did people really think of her as someone who didn’t like sex?
“Of course I like sex! I know I’m not exactly behaving like a model of self-control, but… Let’s just say that Luke has a strange effect on me.”
She heard a loud, dramatic sigh over the phone. “I know exactly what you mean. That, actually, is why I’m calling.”
“Because you’re hot and bothered?”
“Because I need advice.”
Jane rolled her eyes. Of course. Why would any of her sisters call her if not to get advice from the “expert?” Not that Jane was much of an expert on fawning men and too many dates for one weekend, but the triplets all deferred to her on relationship issues. Having a career based on giving advice could get tedious, to say the least.
“What this time?”
“Remember Eli Caldwell, one of Michael’s groomsmen?”
“Yes. What about him?” Jane asked, though she already knew. She was about to get Jennifer’s version of the love-triangle drama Lacey had told her about at the wedding shower.
“It’s not so much him as it is Lacey. She knows I want Eli, and she’s going after him anyway. How do I tell her to bug off without looking like a jerk?”
“I thought you all had a strict policy about not dating guys who were interested in more than one of you?”
Yet another reason Jane was happy not to be one of the triplets—men and their weird identical sibling fantasies.
“We did, until this. Eli’s been sort of flirting with both of us, but I think he’s just getting us confused. I told Lacey a few months ago that I thought he was hot and that he’d asked me out.”
“So you’ve gone out with him?”
“A couple of times, and things were moving along just fine, but then he started flirting with Lacey, and she flirted back!”
“Then he’s a jerk, and you should run the other way. Lacey deserves what she gets for behaving this way.” Assuming Jennifer was even telling the correct version of the story—likely neither of them were being honest. Jane had learned long ago that her sisters had a way of making themselves out to be the heroine of every story.
“But I swear, I think he’s just getting us confused. I thought there might be something special between us.”
“If he were having trouble telling you apart, wouldn’t he be flirting with Heather, too?”
“I guess, but she’s always hanging on Michael’s arm, so it’s easier to pick her out.”
“Okay, but still, if a guy was really interested in you alone, don’t you think he’d take the trouble to memorize your slight physical differences every time he saw you with your sister?”