Forbidden Heat

Jake’s fists clenched at his sides. “We went into this as a threesome . . . and now you want to walk away with the girl?”

As their anger flared, Danielle’s heart compressed. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

“For heaven’s sake, I started all this to bring you two together again,” she said, “not to drive you apart.”

“What?” Trey stared at her.

“I . . . I wanted to be with the two of you, that was always true, but I have always known that the two of you were meant to be together. I thought that maybe . . . since you both liked the arrangement with me . . . that keeping it going would keep you two seeing each other, and I hoped . . . I really believed that . . . you might get back together.”

Trey turned to Jake. “Did you know about this?”

Jake just shrugged. “That doesn’t matter now.” He turned around and met Trey’s gaze. “I’ve fallen in love with Danielle. And she loves me.”

Trey’s sharp gaze turned to her. “So you believe you love him . . . but not me?”

“I told you last night, you don’t really—”

“Fuck!” He turned back to Jake, anger blazing from his eyes.

Danielle blinked back tears at the animosity flaring between these two men who she knew cared about each other. Trey clung to his concept of loving her only to hide from his fear of loving a man, and Jake . . .

“You claim to care about me, but you’ll steal the one woman I love?” Trey’s jaw clenched.

Danielle blanched.

This morning, she’d been thrilled to find that Jake loved her. She knew in her heart that she loved him. Deeply and truly.

But now a sickening feeling sliced through her. Rather than true love, might it be that he was deluding himself, just as Trey was? Convincing himself he loved her to hide the pain of knowing he’d finally lost Trey?

“What the hell kind of friend—?” Trey continued.

“Stop it. Both of you,” she demanded. She dragged in a

deep calming breath. “Please.”

Jake clamped his mouth shut on whatever his response would have been. Trey grasped the back of one of the chairs by Jake’s worktable, his knuckles turning white.

She stepped forward and rested her hand on Trey’s arm. “Trey, you don’t really—”

Trey’s eyes blazed in anger. “You think I don’t really love you?” Trey pulled her into his arms and practically smothered her with a fervent kiss. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel the passion . . . the love between us.”

But she did . . . and that frightened her.

“Trey, until you admit that you can love a man, I can never accept your love . . . because I will always believe you’re just fooling yourself.”

She turned to Jake, unsure that choosing him over Trey was the right decision.

“Oh no, Danielle.” Jake shook his head. “Don’t tell me you doubt what we have.”

Jake strode toward her, and she backed up a step, her hands raised.

“Please, Jake. No.” She couldn’t handle him taking her in his arms and kissing her. “This still doesn’t feel right. If you two could just work things out . . .”

“But that’s the whole point, Danielle,” Trey stated firmly. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Jake and I gave it a good try and it didn’t work out. We had a great time while we were together, but something was missing.”

He stepped forward and took her hand, but she snatched it away, unable to bear his loving touch.

Trey’s jaw clenched. “I’m sorry, but it’s not going to work to get us back together again.”