Three Men and a Woman: Delilah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Three Men and a Woman: Delilah

  “I’ll make it right for you, pretty girl. I promise.”

  How many times has Delilah Owens heard those words now? Three. From three wildly seductive, wickedly handsome men from her past. They each draw her into incredibly erotic relationships. Then they break her heart. A matter of honor. What has to be. I’ll make it right.

  When Delilah falls back into their lives, best friends Lincoln Banks, Ben West, and Austin Hart realize they all once had a thing for her. For each of them, she’d been the focus of a hot desire that was left unexplored, frustrated by intervening life events. Now, each wants a second chance with her. They make a whiskey-driven devil’s pact. Each man gets one month to win her heart. Whoever wins, wins. That seems fair, right?

  But Delilah falls for them all. And when she confronts them, heart in her teary eyes, there’s only one way they can make it right.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 78,790 words

  THREE MEN AND A WOMAN: DELILAH

  Rachel Billings

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  THREE MEN AND A WOMAN: DELILAH

  Copyright © 2013 by Rachel Billings

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-400-6

  First E-book Publication: August 2013

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

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  DEDICATION

  To Dad.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  About the Author

  THREE MEN AND A WOMAN: DELILAH

  RACHEL BILLINGS

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  “All right. I’m CEO, and I suggest we don’t choose our next AA on the basis of one of us thinking he might get lucky. Pussy shouldn’t factor into it.”

  Lincoln Banks looked up sharply at his two best friends and business partners. They all three shifted in their seats. Well, maybe not Ben West, who sat there in his mindful, Buddha-like state. He was hard to shake.

  “How about an agreement that we focus on trying to get laid when we’re not on company time? Let’s all delete the file of the woman we know, and we’ll choose between the two who are left. Deal?”

  Linc knew Ben and Austin Hart were as reluctant as he was. But they all dutifully looked down at their iPads and deleted a file.

  He waited a long minute, watching his screen, but four out of five resumes still sat there.

  He peered at Ben, who lifted his hands.

  “I deleted mine.”

  Austin. “Me, too.”

  “What the hell. You guys know Delilah?”

  Linc sighed and sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. He was in charge of ABL Fuel Technology. Ben was a brilliant organic chemist and chief of the research division, despite his casual, surfer-dude looks. And Austin, with his sharp, precise, and concrete mind that had seen him through his PhD at Berkeley, as well as the lean, muscled body that had made him a Cal Bear tight end, was head of bioengineering.

  It was the five o’clock Friday partners’ meeting, and their main task for the day was to select candidates to interview for their administrative assistant opening. They sat in Linc’s corner office. It was a nice one. They’d built from the ground up, with modern Santa Cruz architecture that was all sharp angles, green glass, and redwood. His office was definitely prime space, with windows facing south and west over the city and Monterey Bay.

  Linc was unhappy. He already bore a grudge about the whole deal. Mavis Campbell, their AA since they started up the green energy firm, was insisting on retiring. She blathered on about her retired husband and their RV and grandchildren and fishing and shit.

  He’d asked her to vet the applicants and give him her top five picks. Like a good manager, he’d sent the five resumes around to his partners.

  It was pro forma only. He knew which one he was going to hire as soon as he’d glanced at the files. Delilah. He wasn’t CEO for nothing—he knew how to finesse his partners.

  But he was out-maneuvered the moment he brought the subject up. He’d already walked them through the financials. Then he’d run the photovoltaic coffee mug past them again, but that was purely diversionary. They’d rolled their eyes, again, and assured him that, as soon as they got done saving the earth with renewable, clean energy that could, say, run cars, they’d get around to a coffee mug that actually kept his brew hot.

  So he thought he had them prepped to finesse the Delilah deal when Ben spoke up and
ruined it all. One of the applicants, he said, was a girl he’d known in the past. He’d like to give her a chance.

  Then Austin had said the same damn thing.

  Motherfuck. After that, Linc could hardly refrain from admitting that he’d once had a sweet spot for one of them as well.

  Only, who the hell could have guessed that it would be Delilah for each of them?

  They all looked at each other. Finally, Austin cleared his throat. “I knew her back in high school. She was my best friend’s kid sister.”

  Linc raised his brow. “And now you want to boink her?”

  Austin bristled a bit. “Nick was a buddy. My QB.”

  Ah, like football should make a difference. Like they’d sworn a brotherhood.

  “He died. One of those stupid heart things that athletes don’t know they have until they’re dead.”

  Well, hell. That sucked.

  All grace and muscle, Austin rose from his chrome and leather chair and walked to a window. After a good bit he turned back, resting his ass against the sill. “She was fifteen when I went off to college. I’d kind of had my eye on her but she was just a kid—not even legal—and, you know, my best friend’s baby sister. Later, when I went back to Norfolk from college, she was gone. You know she was a Navy brat, right? Her family had moved off somewhere. Japan, I think.”

  Ben spoke next. “Yeah. She did her freshman year at University of Tokyo. Her father was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval Base. I did a semester there, too, studying with Dr. Inihara. That’s where I learned nanocolloid crystallization.” He looked at the others. “I met her there. A bunch of American students got together for Thanksgiving. We went out a couple times after, but then it was end of semester and I left.”

  Lincoln knew there was more to it than that for Ben. There’d been a brother airlifted to an army hospital in Germany.

  He sighed. He’d barely met the girl himself, but he remembered her with such longing. She was maybe five-nine, all long legs and lush curves. She had a sweet, innocent face, with blonde hair that ended in haphazard curls around her chin. He’d been on his way to getting drunk, and she was feeling happy, too. They’d shared a dance and a hot, interrupted kiss before she’d disappeared. It was a kiss he’d never forgotten.

  “She was graduating from BU, celebrating with friends, at the same time I’d finished my MBA. We met at a bar near Harvard. I’d had a few, but not so many that I didn’t notice her. We danced, but then I had to go make a toast and when I turned around she was gone. I went back to look for her half a dozen times. I only had her first name. I haven’t seen her face again until I got this file from Mavis.”

  He looked down at his iPad and fetched Delilah back from the trash—just as he knew his friends were doing. He looked at each of them in turn. “I’d really like to see her again.”

  Austin grimaced. “Yeah, me, too.”

  Ben looked at both of his friends before he spoke. “Three.”

  Lincoln tapped his fingers on the desk a few beats. Then he hollered, “Mavis!”

  Her response was slow, signaling her disapproval of his misbehavior. It was probably a full two minutes before her white, fluffy-haired head poked around the door. “You have an intercom.”

  “Yeah, but I wanted you in here, and look, here you are.”

  Appearing unimpressed with his reasoning, she stepped in fully, her frumpy black polyester pantsuit belying her incredibly sharp, organized brain. She was their cranky, take-names-and-kick-butt figurative grandmother, and he hated like hell to let her go.

  “When does Katie start her maternity leave?”

  Katie was the youngest of Mavis’s five children and was about to pop out her own third kid. Like her mother, she was a kick-ass AA who managed an office the same way she managed her family—with regimental organization and no-nonsense love.

  “In two weeks,” Mavis replied. “They found a temp who’ll be here week after next. Katie will spend a week orienting him.”

  “Then she’s taking six months or so?”

  Mavis nodded.

  “I’m going to talk with Howard.”

  Howard Wright, Katie’s employer, had a small ecology research firm that did work for local fisheries. He’d been a connection helpful to Lincoln when they’d first scouted the area, looking for a home for their own business. He was past retirement age but wasn’t ready to quit yet.

  Lincoln eyed his work group before he turned back to Mavis. “I’d like to make a switch with him. I’m going to ask him to hire one of the women you vetted for us, and we’ll take his temp.”

  Mavis crossed her arms under her ample, heroically brassiered bosom and raised a brow. “She has to be good. Katie won’t let you stick Howard with anyone who’s not top-notch.”

  “You checked each of them out for us yourself. You know they’re all more than good.”

  “I suppose it’s the pretty face you’re after. Delilah Owens, right?”

  Linc raised a brow, though that was a ploy that seldom worked with her. She just gave him a hard look back.

  “Why don’t you just hire her? You know you need a permanent replacement. I’m not coming back.”

  Linc grinned. “Mave, sweetheart, there will always, always be a spot for you here. And we don’t think for a minute we can replace you. But, yeah, we’ll find someone permanent. We just have to work a little deal first.”

  She huffed her way out the door, pretending like they didn’t know she was going to shed tears when she left them for good.

  Lincoln stood and gestured his buddies to their feet. Finishing the week this way—a partners’ conference in Lincoln’s office followed by happy hour at Moe’s Alley or a shared bottle of wine down on the beach—had become a tradition of the five-year-old biotech company. They made it a time to problem solve, celebrate the week’s successes, and enjoy the friendship that was the basis of their organization.

  Tonight was going to have to be different.

  “Close up shop. Let’s head up the mountain.” Linc’s home was another glass and redwood structure, far enough up Glen Canyon Road to give him a view of the Bay. His huge stone deck seemed to drop off into space above it, and contained an over-the-top grill, a fire pit, an infinity pool, and a hot tub. “We need a plan, and it’s going to require some Bushmills.”

  * * * *

  “I’m taking a temp job in Santa Cruz.”

  Delilah Owens knew she only had a portion of her best friend Sarah’s attention. Sarah was a new mother, and nothing ever stole all of her attention away from her three-month-old son Bruce Jr., aka Pookie Bear.

  But her declaration made a fair job of it. Sarah’s eyes left Pookie’s to look at her. “California?”

  Presumably that was better than Mexico. “Um-hmm.”

  “Lilah. That’s so far. And a temp job. Why would you travel across the country for a temp job?”

  It was late April, and still Boston was cold, wet, and gray. Santa Cruz was sunny and seventy, like it almost always was. Delilah had never been there, but the year her family had spent in Monterey while her father taught at the Naval Postgraduate School had been the favorite of her childhood. No one knew her there. No ghosts lived there—at least, none from her past.

  “The company offered me a year’s salary plus housing to cover a six-month maternity leave. I can work and take my time finding a permanent position. Even if I hate it and don’t want to stay in the area, it will give me time to look anywhere I want.”

  “You didn’t even go interview. How can you take a job sight unseen?”

  “I spoke with the owner on the phone. He sounded exactly like my grandfather. He thinks his AA walks on water and will do anything to keep her happy. I spoke with her, too. She loves him right back. It sounds perfect. If it’s not, well—six months, that’s all. I’ll find something else.”

  “Another AA job.” It was a complaint, not a question.

  Delilah stifled a groan. She didn’t want to go there again. Yes, she had a BA in business
from BU. Sure, she could run her own company if she wanted to.

  She didn’t.

  She was good at her job—great at it, even. Like every good AA, she had the skills that made a business work. She kept every ball in the air, dotted every i, did everything but leap over tall buildings. And she was perfectly happy doing it. She enjoyed implementing other people’s big decisions—she was damn good at it. She just didn’t want to make the important calls herself.

  She didn’t want to be CEO.

  “It’s what I like. Please don’t make me defend it again. You left your vice president position to raise the Bear, here. I don’t nag about a decision that was right for you, do I?”

  Sarah rolled her shoulders and kissed her baby for the twenty-third time that hour. “You’re right. I’m okay with your decision about your work, but…it’s so far away.”

  Delilah felt the pain of it, too. Both Navy kids, she and Sarah had few friends they could claim from childhood. One each, to be exact. Their fathers had been shipmates off and on, and in the same division, so their careers—and families—had intersected several times. The girls had chosen the same college so they could be together.

  And they’d both settled in Boston after. Sarah had worked her way up in banking until she married the brother of a coworker and gave birth to the first of what Delilah was sure would be several children. Bruce Sr. loved her madly, Sarah adored him, and they had both fallen ridiculously, almost embarrassingly hard for their son.

  Delilah might have jumped onboard, taking the mommy track, too, except her own decision to marry had been a mistake. She was twenty-three when she chose Isaac, or, rather, let him choose her. He’d been a charming scoundrel, only she hadn’t seen the scoundrel part until it was too late. Once they were married, he moved from job to lame job, using equally lame excuses to quit one and taking painfully long, self-indulgent spells to find another. After she miscarried her first pregnancy—a heartbreaking loss she suffered through alone—she’d realized that adding children to their rocky marriage would be a mistake. She was the only real wage earner, and it was more than clear that Isaac couldn’t be counted on for responsible childcare. Or anything else.