Desiree Holt - Caught in the Middle

Swingtime ©Copyright Desiree Holt 2009

Charity’s Auction ©Copyright Ashley Ladd 2009

Between Tooth and Claw ©Copyright Kim Dare 2009

Mating Season ©Copyright Nadia Aidan 2009

Magical Ménage ©Copyright Crissy Smith 2009

Trouble for Three ©Copyright Sascha Illyvich 2009

Warning:This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning/Total-e-melting.

Lanie Burrell flipped a page in the book she was reading and sighed. Since she’d taken a job as reviewer for erotic romance publishers, she’d become all too aware of how pitiful her own sex life was. She could only lose herself in the pages of someone else’s fantasy so many times before wondering if she’d ever get to live out her fantasies. If the closest she would get was reading about them while she sunned herself on her patio.

She turned a page and sighed. This particular book was about a ménage, and the heroine was in bed for the first time with both lovers. Naked, they lay back on the cool cotton sheets, hands stroking each other, touching each other’s sex organs in erotic exploration. The heroine had just-

“Lanie?”

The deep male voice startled her, and she jumped, dropping her book on the patio beside her chair.

“Ohmigod, Cody.” She pressed her hand to her heart. “You scared me out of ten years’ growth.”

Her neighbour didn’t usually sneak up on her this way. It was bad enough living on the same cul-de-sac with a man who made her mouth water, her nipples stand at attention and her crotch dampen whenever she laid eyes on him, but she usually had enough warning that she could keep herself under control. Today not only had he walked into her yard without notice, but if she’d been an aggressive, uninhibited female, she would have given in to her feelings and thrown herself at him, begging for wild, crazy sex.

Cody Hawkins was a magnificent six-foot-two, with well-defined muscles rippling beneath skin tanned the colour of old bronze. Black hair cut deliberately shaggy fell just below the nape of his neck like black silk, the colour echoed by his thick eyelashes that framed electric-blue eyes and the pelt of hair that covered his chest and arrowed down below his waistband. Today, it was all visible because he wore only the briefest of cut-off shorts, the rest of him, including his sculpted, muscular legs, on glorious, mouth-watering display.

He grinned at her, one dimple flashing at a corner of his very sexy mouth. “Sorry, sugar. I didn’t mean to creep up on you this way, but you were totally into your book.”

Before she could grab for it, he picked it up and looked at the cover, his grin widening. “My, my. ‘Three To Make Ready’, huh? And is this a ménage I see on the cover?” His eyes sparkled with mischief when he looked at her. “Lanie, you definitely surprise me.”

She yanked the book away from him, at the same time trying to tug on a T-shirt over her halter, covering her too-exposed flesh. Not that getting naked with Cody Hawkins wasn’t at the forefront of her dreams. “Give me that. My reading material is none of your business. Anyway, I get paid to read these books.”

One eyebrow lifted. “No kidding. Think I could get a job like that in my spare time?”

Lanie held the book behind her back, the heat of embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. “You could probably write the books,” she snapped. “Anyway, what do you want?”

Cody’s eyes slowly scanned her from head to toe and back up again, sparks of interest flickering in them. “I wonder if I’ve misjudged you all this time, Lanie Burrell. You might have hidden talents it would be fun to look for.”

You have no idea.

She knew Cody got a kick out of teasing her, sure that she’d never take him up on any of his offers. She could hardly tell him that at night when she crawled into bed with her battery-operated toys he played the leading role in every one of her fantasies. The first time she’d met him, a spike of sexual arousal had run through her so strong it had literally made her weak. Every time she’d seen him since then, the attraction had grown. She’d love nothing more than a relationship with this man who made her heart stumble.

But Cody travelled with a crowd far more glamorous and sophisticated than she was. She had nothing to interest him. Nothing to offer him. And she needed to get him out of here right now before she put her foot in her mouth.

“Forget about my talents. I’m sure you didn’t come over here to discuss my reading material, so what’s the deal?”

He sighed dramatically. “Rejected again. Okay, okay.” He held up his hands. “I just wanted to remind you I’m having another party tonight. In case you wanted to, you know, go out or whatever it is you when I…entertain.”

Ah, yes. When Cody entertains.

By a strange twist of circumstance, she and Cody owned the only two houses on this cul-de-sac. The rest was beautiful green space-thick trees, an abundance of natural shrubbery, habitats for small animals. Once upon a time a builder had planned lots for the entire short street, but financial miscalculations had wiped him out. He’d been forced to put the two completed spec houses and the land up for sale. Lanie had arrived at the realtors office after scoping out the house to make an offer, only to discover that Cody, an electronics gazillionaire, had made an offer for the entire package. To this day, she still didn’t know why he’d backed off and let her buy the other house.

But a month after she moved in, she discovered why he needed the privacy the street afforded.

The night of her discovery, car doors had been slamming for ten minutes and raucous laughter splitting the night had teased at Lanie’s curiosity. When her friend, Michele, discovered where she was living, she’d laughed and told her Cody Hawkins’ lifestyle was the stuff of legends. Lanie, who had never been adventurous where sex was concerned, was stunned to learn her new neighbour indulged in a no holds barred sexual lifestyle, even as her imagination wove fanciful scenes about what would happen across the street from her.

“Always the same people,” Michele grinned. “A very exclusive club. I hear they have threesomes and foursomes and they all perform for each other.”

Listening to Michele regale her with details, Lanie’s face had burned even as she’d soaked her crotch and an unsatisfied itch had overtaken her.

Now she would have a chance to see if her friend was right.

She moved to the window at the end of the hall on the second floor, the spot that gave her the best view of Cody’s house and grounds. The sliding door to the pool opened, and five naked people ran outside, laughing, and jumped into the pool. She knew she should just mind her own business, but she couldn’t seem to move her hypnotised self away from the window.

Before long, everyone hauled themselves out of the pool and fell onto the extra-wide lounge chairs, proceeding to indulge in sex acts Lanie had so far only read about in the books she reviewed. Duos, threesomes, even four or five people in what she’d learned was called a daisy chain, filled the night air with exultant cries of sexual satisfaction.