Her Mane Men (Paranormal Dating Agency Kindle World)(4)

“You’re not running.” I swore I felt his lips brush the top of my head before he, too, returned to his chair.

“See, she’s not running, Parker. I told you Gerri wouldn’t steer us wrong.”

“She’s not running because she’s in shock.” There was a slight lilt in his voice, and I was pretty sure he was teasing, a conjecture he sealed with his wink to me.

“Not shock,” I disagreed.

“Then, what?” Parker sounded much more concerned than Curtis looked.

“Intrigued.” It was so much more than that, but that would work for the moment.

“Intrigued. We can work with that.” Parker refilled all our glasses, although mine was the only one that needed it.

“So, what now?” I had no idea what to do from here, but my gut told me to give it a go. My gut and the moisture drenching my panties, but that wasn’t the best way to make a decision.

“Now we eat dinner.” Curtis waved as he called out, “Louis, we’re ready now.” To which the waiter showed up far quicker than I would’ve imagined, ready to give us the evening’s specials.





Chapter Three


Dinner was amazing. We agreed to set aside any talk of anything more than a nice night out with friends. Not that that kept my imagination at bay, but it kept the conversation away from the things I was so not ready to broach yet.

I ordered the crab cakes, while both men had steaks, made all fancy by who knew what. We dined and chatted about their jobs and mine, about what kinds of movies we enjoyed, what our favorite colors were, and all the normal first date stuff. The best part was watching the two of them interact. They had an undeniable connection and complemented each other well.

When it was time for dessert, I was stuffed to the gills but ordered anyway, trying to stretch out our time together.

“Your berry meringue, ma’am.” Louis placed it in front of me along with my tea before giving Parker and Curtis their slices of pie. Steak and pie. We were at the fanciest place around, and they ate steak and pie. Part of me loved that. None of the pretentious truffle oil everything.

“How’s your dessert?” Parker asked, looking at my untouched confection.

“Truth?”

“Always.” They both spoke at the same time, affirming the importance of that one simple statement. They wanted the truth. Always. I could give them that. Would there be more opportunity for me to do so? Things seemed to be going well, but that didn’t mean they wanted more time with me.

“I only ordered dessert so our dinner wouldn’t be over.” I put my fork down, the pretense of eating no longer needed.

“It doesn’t have to be.” Parker reached over, gently placing his hand on mine. There was no innuendo in his voice, his hand a chaste gesture, not that my body got that message.

“It does, though. I have no idea how to process any of this, and with you guys both here being all interesting and sexy, I can’t think straight.” My words came out a mile a minute.

“She called us sexy.” Parker squeezed my hand, his eyes never leaving Curtis.

“That’s what you got out of her honest expression of her needs.”

“Really, Curtis.”

I bit my lip to avoid the smile of amusement attempting to break free as Parker spoke.

“This isn’t a radio call-in show.”

“And I did call you sexy.” I reached my hand over to Curtis’s side of the table, which he accepted readily as I winked. This was not me in so many ways, but, around them, it was, oddly enough. I didn’t feel like I was putting on a show or working my flirt, I was just having fun. It was nice.

“Two peas. You two are two peas.” Parker’s smile grew as he shook his head in false disapproval. The playful banter came easily, but that was all this evening could be. At least, unless it was going to be more than one yummy meal, which I increasingly desired it to become.

“Seriously, though, what do you want to do from here?” I held my breath as they looked to each other and back to me, their expressions telling me they viewed me as a scared kitten they were afraid would run up into a tree or into traffic to never be seen again.

“I don’t want to leave it where you will let us know because I’m a selfish bastard and want to know we will see you again.” Curtis’s words shook me to my core. The raw honesty in them let his mask of composure slip for a moment, a side of him I ventured few had ever seen.

“If we try to go further, is it I date you, and I date Curtis, and you two date each other?” I was past the point of you’ve got to be kidding me and the point of can this really be a thing for more than a roll in the hay, and was now into the how do the nuts and bolts of this work because, for whatever reason, I went from the girl who hates first dates almost as much as second dates to the girl who wants to make it work with two men.

“Is that what you would want?”

Is that what I want? That was such a loaded question. I could easily see myself dating either of these men, and my imagination already showed me them dating each other, but the idea of three separate relationships wasn’t very appealing.

“I don’t think so.” Not that I knew where to go from there.

“We’ve never had our third before, so this is as new to us as it is to you.”