Skirt Steak (Grade-A Beefcakes 5)

Prologue

Women. The saying went, can’t live with them, can’t live without them. I would agree to that, except it wasn’t all women. Just one in particular. Jill Murphy. I couldn’t live with her because she wasn’t ready yet to do more than date casually. The fact that she wanted me and Liam Hogan but hadn’t let herself admit that yet was probably the reason. We weren’t helping her with that all too much since she didn’t know we were both totally on board with it. He and I had met and agreed we’d claim her together. Why fight when we could both have her? Two men taking care of her, loving her, protecting her was better for Jill. She’d always have a man to lean on, to take care of her every need.

We both wanted her. Both ached for her. Both needed inside her, and soon. I could sway a jury in the courtroom with strategic words and a solid argument. But Jill wasn’t a case to win, but a heart to covet. It was important she came to the decision that she belonged to both of us on her own. We wanted her all-in, heart and soul. And luscious body.

So no living with her. Yet.

As for living without her? Not happening. No fucking way. Just seeing her face light up when she saw me made my day. My week. Hell, my entire fucking life.

Jillian Murphy was mine. All mine, and Liam’s too. We’d live with her, claim her, keep her, cherish the fuck out of her and never spend a night without her beside one of us.

But first, she had to agree.

Women.

1

JILL

* * *

I could hear my cell ringing from the depths of my purse, but I wasn’t taking my hands off the steering wheel to search for it, no matter how eager I was to answer. Not with the snow on the road. The latest few inches were fresh and the plows had been through, but they didn’t use salt or scrape all the way down to the pavement, so the streets of Raines were a hard crust of white until the spring thaw. And that wasn’t for a few more months.

A spot on the street was easy to find, and I pulled in and shut off the engine. I’d been in newer models that allowed a cell phone to sync into the dashboard for hands free calling, but that wasn’t something available in my older model SUV. It ran, had heat—which was great since it was close to zero—and it was mine free and clear.

I dug through my purse, found the cell. I thought it might be Porter telling me he was running late because he was coming from work in Clayton, but it was Parker Drew instead.

“You’re going to talk to them, right?” she asked, not bothering with a warm up ‘hello’. “No chickening out.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Tonight’s the night.”

“You sound a little panicked.”

“I am a little panicked,” I admitted. “I mean, why shouldn’t I be? It’s not that often a guy gets told he’s not enough, and that a woman wants him and his best friend.”

“Neither of them is going to think that,” she countered.

The butterflies in my stomach were telling me otherwise. “I hope not, but it’s a possibility I could end up with neither of them.”

“Porter’s a Duke and having two guys claim one woman is a Duke thing. I mean, look at me.”