Alex Reid (Rich & Single #1) Read online

  “And now that we’re here, what are you going to do, hmm?”

  They looked at each other across his body. He saw the silent communication pass between them, though he couldn’t make out its meaning. Danni’s foot slid up his calf and then back down again, slow and teasing.

  “I think we should play a game,” Amanda suggested, giving him a long look from under eyelashes darkened with mascara that must have been waterproof.

  “What sort of game?”

  “Marco Polo,” Danni said on his other side.

  They both pushed away from him in the same moment, kicking back until they were treading water just out of arm’s reach. Alex waited patiently. He wasn’t always in the mood for their games, but when he could be bothered with them they were usually worth a little indulgence.

  “You’re it,” Amanda said. “And when you catch us…”

  “Use your imagination,” Danni offered helpfully.

  They both giggled, and Amanda blew him a kiss. Alex rolled his eyes, but he closed them obligingly. As he counted to ten, he could hear them moving further away, and then silence.

  “Marco,” he said on a sigh that wasn’t quite annoyed.

  “Polo,” two voices called back, pitched deliberately low and breathy.

  One on his right, one on his left. Alex grinned and started toward one of them.

  “Marco,” he called again.

  “Polo,” came the response, mixed with the sounds of bodies moving through the water.

  “How about one of you just comes here?” Alex suggested.

  He was answered with laughter.

  “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

  There was a splash to his right and slightly behind him, but up ahead, in the direction the other voice had come from, he couldn’t hear any motion. Either she was quieter than he’d thought her capable of being, or she was staying very still in the hopes that he wouldn’t catch her. Or in the hopes that he would. Alex was counting on the latter. He thought he could hear her breathing, just over the sounds of his own motion through the water.

  Definitely breathing. Alex grinned.

  “Marco,” he said, in his normal speaking voice.

  “Polo,” came the whisper of an answer.

  He reached out and closed his hand around a bicep, drawing a warm body in close, and wrapped both his arms around Amanda’s lithe form. Her half-hearted struggles were short-lived, her laughter slipping into a moan when he dragged her against his chest and slid a hand between her thighs.

  “Oh,” she breathed. And then, “Fuck. Alex.” Her hips rocked against his hand.

  “You look like you’re having way too much fun over here without me,” Danni said at his back.

  Alex turned his head to grin at her over his shoulder. “You’ll get your turn.”

  One hand on her hip to hold her in place, Alex rubbed circles over Amanda’s clit with his thumb until she was writhing, and then abruptly withdrew the touch and pushed her gently back.

  “You’re it, I think.”

  Danni laughed. Amanda didn’t.

  “Come on. Get to it.”

  Amanda flipped him off, but she closed her eyes and began to count. Alex backed away. Danni followed his example.

  “Marco,” Amanda said when she’d hit ten.

  “Polo,” they both answered.

  Alex immediately ducked under the water and swam back a few feet, coming up again silently at the edge of the deep end. Danni had moved around the other way, toward the upper left corner of the pool.

  “When I catch you, Alex,” Amanda said, completely ignoring Danni to move in the direction of the place he had been a few minutes ago. “You’re going to regret it.”

  Danni laughed. With a wink for him, she began following Amanda, sneaking in closer.

  “Marco,” Amanda said.

  “Polo,” Danni and Alex said almost in unison.

  She really might make him regret it, Alex knew. Amanda could be a tease. He edged to the right. Amanda, still completely ignoring Danni, followed the sound of his voice. Danni crept in behind her until she was almost in arm’s reach, stifling laughter behind one hand. Alex, watching her, shook his head.

  “Marco.”

  “Polo,” Alex said.

  “Polo,” Danni replied, the laughter she’d been hiding leaking out in the word.

  Abruptly, Amanda turned and lunged, catching Danni by the shoulders with both hands. Danni made a cut off sort of squeaking sound, her eyes wide with shock. Amanda, opening her own eyes, laughed.

  “Oh, come on. You didn’t really think you were going to make it that easy and get away with it, did you?”

  Danni shrugged a little, and grinned sheepishly. “Maybe I did.”

  Amanda didn’t answer. She glanced over at Alex then laid a palm against Danni’s cheek, drawing her into a long, slow kiss. Her free hand slid up the shorter woman’s side, over the curve of her ribs to stroke along the underside of her breast. Alex, alone on the other side of the pool, groaned as he watched. Tease. Amanda turned to look at him, and her expression was smug. She knew exactly what she was doing to him, the minx.

  “Your turn,” she told Danni as she took a step back, fingers lingering over Danni’s skin in one last caress before she stepped out of reach entirely.

  Obediently, Danni closed her eyes.

  Amanda didn’t go far. She exchanged a glance with Alex and he moved in closer, both of them circling Danni as she turned to seek out the source of the faint splashing noises that followed their movement.

  “Marco.”

  Amanda reached in and tapped her shoulder, darting away again. “Polo.”

  “Polo,” Alex answered.

  Danni jumped after Amanda, but missed. Alex dipped under the water and pushed off from the bottom of the pool, propelling himself past Danni. As he passed, he reached out and trailed his fingertips along the inside of her thigh, almost brushing the warm space between them. He came up several feet away to her disappointed huff of breath. Amanda glanced at him, and smiled slowly. He smiled back at her.

  This time it was both of them, moving silently in nearer, ducking underwater every time Danni looked like she was about to open her mouth. Just out of arm’s reach on her left side, Alex surfaced. Over her shoulder, he caught Amanda’s eye again, and nodded. Before Danni had so much as realized they were there, they were wrapped around her. Her eyes snapped open.

  “You are such lousy cheats.”

  Despite the complaint, her arms wrapped around Alex’s neck, and he grinned down at her as he slid a thigh between her legs.

  “You love it, though.”

  “Mmm. True.”

  She grinned, and arched up for a kiss that Alex readily gave. Two or three times over. Danni’s hips rolled, pressing her sex against his thigh. When they broke for air, Amanda was giving him a reproachful look, and with a laugh he leaned over Danni’s shoulder and kissed her, too.

  “I think we should take this party up to the bedroom,” Alex said when that kiss had broken. “Any objections?”

  Both girls shook their heads.

  They emerged from the pool, dripping, and Alex handed out towels. He was a little sad to see the sleek shine of water dried from their skin, but the tradeoff was worth it. Alex knew how to make a deal, after all, and he always walked away with something better than he’d started with. Wet naked girls were nice. But dry naked girls in your bed were even nicer.

  At the staircase, Alex gestured to the women that they go up first, and they gave him knowing looks from under their eyelashes, but did it anyway, laughing. Alex, thoroughly admiring the view, waited until they were several steps up to follow.

  When he stepped into the bedroom they each caught a hand and pulled him toward the bed. It wasn’t exactly a difficult fight. He leaned back against the tug, just a little, to give them a reason to make begging faces at him and then, laughing, he allowed them to drag him forward and tumble him onto the mattress. They followed enthusiastically,
making the bed bounce a little under him.

  “So,” Danni said, suddenly leaning over him with her damp curls falling around her face and her wide brown eyes laughing above a wicked smile. “How do you want to do it this time?”

  “Hmm. I think…”

  Alex abruptly rolled them so that he was looking down at Danni, her hair a riot of autumn brown threaded with copper and gold and spilling across the sheets. He pulled back enough to flip her easily over, and she moaned low in her throat, already scrambling up onto her hands and knees.

  “Amanda, you want to grab the condoms from the nightstand?”

  There was a rustle of movement, and then Amanda moved into his line of sight, already ripping open a condom packet. Alex traced two fingers up the curve of Danni’s lips and watched her shudder with it, her hips hitching up toward his hand. Amanda wrapped a cool hand around his cock and stroked once, then twice, before rolling the condom down his length. Alex caught her before she could pull away and dragged her into a kiss, nipping at her lower lip before he drew back.

  “Don’t go far.”

  She laughed. “Oh, believe me. I have no intention of it.”

  Leaning down, Alex nipped at the curve of Danni’s neck where it met her spine, and stroked his hands over the curves of her hips.

  “You ready?”

  “Fuck yes, Alex. Come on. Do it already.”

  That was enough of an answer for him. He straightened, and slid in on one long thrust. Danni groaned under him, fingers clenching in the sheets, and he felt her toes curl against the outer edges of his knees.

  One hand wrapped around her hip, dragging her back into the next thrust. With the other he signaled to Amanda, who crawled over to his side with a supermodel slink to the motion of her hips, and rose up onto her knees. He curled his fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her close. This time the kiss was long and slow, their pauses for breath keeping pace with the rhythm of his motion inside Danni.

  Alex’s hand slid down Amanda’s neck, over the curve of her shoulder to her back. He traced the line of her spine with his fingers until it met the cleft of her ass, and then he followed that, too. Amanda made a sound she would probably never admit was a whine.

  “Want something?”

  “You know what I want.”

  He did. Alex turned his full attention to Danni for a moment, rocking in hard and fast to listen to her pant expletives around her moans, and then he slowed, and slid his fingers around Amanda’s hip to stroke the length of her slit. She rolled her hips into the touch with a gasp.

  Both of them were moaning now, making little sounds that went straight to his cock. Alex kept up the firm circles over Amanda’s clit, fingers moving to the rhythm of his hips. Danni was rocking back to meet him, and Amanda was clutching at his shoulder, her legs sliding wide on the sheets so she could try for more of the friction she so obviously wanted.

  “You’ll get your turn,” Alex said, leaning in to bite gently at the curve of her neck. “Trust me.”

  They’d done this before. She knew she wouldn’t walk away unsatisfied.

  He picked up the pace again, this time for both of them. Danni had dropped down to one elbow, reached a hand back so she could rub her own clit. She was close; he knew the way her hips rolled when she was chasing the peak of her pleasure.

  Another thrust. Two. Three, and she was clenching tight around him, orgasm rippling through her muscles. Alex groaned, but didn’t allow himself to follow her over the edge. There was still Amanda to see to. It was easier thought than done. The tight heat of her was almost too much.

  Danni slumped to the sheets, boneless with release, and Alex gently pulled out, tossing the used condom. Amanda, ever resourceful, had another. When she’d rolled it onto him, he pushed her down to the mattress, hand curling around one thigh to press it upward. Fuck, he loved how flexible she was. She bent easily under him, calf coming to rest over his shoulder, and he pushed in.

  She was wet, so wanting, and already nearly to the edge. Which was good, because after Danni he wasn’t sure how long he was going to make it. Self-control, even control as good as his was, could only take you so far.

  Alex leaned in closer, tipping his head down to tug at a nipple with his teeth, and Amanda arched her spine up into the gentle sting of it. One of her hands tangled in his hair. The other wrapped around his bicep, holding tight. To the side, Alex could hear Danni starting to gather herself. He beckoned to her, and she pressed herself against his side, scattering kisses over his shoulder with the ticklish brush of her soft hair following behind.

  He really wasn’t going to last.

  Amanda was swearing, breathless and eager, writhing under him like she couldn’t get enough. Alex let himself move harder. Faster. She tossed her head back against the pillow with a sound that might have been his name on her lips. It was hard to tell.

  “Close?”

  “Fuck. Yeah. Alex.”

  He stroked his tongue over her nipple, and then again reached down between them to press a thumb over her clit. She came, shuddering around him, and this time Alex let himself fall.

  Chapter 8

  When the world settled back into its proper alignment, Alex was on his elbows over Amanda, his heart beating loudly in his ears. He could hear her breathing coming as fast as his own. The warm length of Danni’s body was pressed against his side.

  “Okay,” Amanda said after comfortable moment of afterglow. “Get off.”

  Alex laughed, but he obligingly pulled out and rolled over, letting her drop her leg to the bed.

  “In a minute, I’m going to get up and take a shower.” Danni sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was them.

  “I have a big shower,” Alex said.

  Which was how they all ended up in the shower together, running hands over the curves of each other’s bodies on the pretense of helping each other wash. Alex did have to hand it to the girls; they weren’t shy about having fun. Or about second rounds. Or third rounds.

  When they all finally collapsed to the bed for the last time, no one suggested a shower. Alex wasn’t sure any of them actually had the energy to get up, let alone initiate any further sexy times. Which was fine with him. Sleep sounded really good right about then.

  The girls cuddled against his sides, and he pulled the blankets up over them. He was bound to wake up too hot partway through the night, but for the moment the arrangement was satisfactory, all that warm skin pressed up against his own. Just because he wasn’t interested in a fourth set of sex acts didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy that particular sensation. And he fucking enjoyed it quite thoroughly.

  Alex didn’t wake in the middle of the night. He woke, instead, to the girls scrambling around the room for their clothing, which they’d brought up with them the night before. He lifted himself up on one elbow and watched them dress.

  “In a hurry?”

  “Our flight leaves in three hours. We’ve still got to get back to the airport and go through international security, and no way am I missing it like we did the last time we tried to fly out of the country,” Amanda answered.

  “Not that we wouldn’t mind staying here for a week again,” Danni said, smiling at him as she ran a brush through her hair. “Even if you’re never home. But we’ve planning this trip for way too long to get derailed on it.”

  The last time, Alex remembered, they had missed their flight for reasons entirely unrelated to him. But he’d invited them to come stay for a while instead of hanging around at the airport for the next one. A day had turned into three. Then a week. When he’d finally sent them home, they’d spent the vacation time they’d intended to spend very much elsewhere in his mansion. Mostly the bedroom.

  “I have to get up for work anyway,” Alex said, flipping the blankets back and rising from the bed despite his body’s protest that he hadn’t had enough sleep. He often went without enough sleep for business reasons. At least the culprit of this fatigue was something much more ple
asant. “I’ve got meetings all day.”

  “See what I mean about you never being home?”

  He had, he remembered, the meeting with the trainer – Parker – about the gym. Among other things.

  “A CEO’s work is never done.”

  “I thought that was a mother’s work?”

  “Mother. CEO. Sometimes I’m not sure I’m not raising this company the same way someone else might raise a child.”

  Both girls laughed.

  “Is it really that bad?” Danni asked.

  Alex turned to look at her for a moment, and then he shook his head. “No. It’s not that bad. Honestly? It’s not bad at all. There are a lot of people who would be thrilled to have a job where they’re making the kind of money I’m making. I’m my own boss. I get the satisfaction of knowing that I brought something as successful as Reid Enterprises into the world…” He smiled. “No. It’s not bad.”

  “That was actually kind of impressive,” Amanda said. “I mean, that ability to pull an uplifting speech completely out of your ass like that.”

  “It’s why I make the big bucks.”

  He was dressed and in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee, by the time the girls came down with their hair done and their makeup on. Alex looked up as they entered.

  “I’ve already called the taxi to take you to the airport. It should be here any minute now.” He nodded to the coffee machine. “Would you like a cup?”

  “I think we’ll just grab Starbucks at the airport,” Amanda said. “But thanks anyway. And thanks for the taxi, too.”

  “And for the spectacular night,” Danni added.

  “Oh, believe me. It was my pleasure.”

  They giggled.