Season 1—Seduction—Episode 10
“At the moment, yes,” Jax concurred, not missing the delicate lilt in her voice. The quivering at the corners of her mouth that just might reveal a smile if she’d let her guard down a bit more.
Yet she was clearly concerned about her position in the mansion. It wasn’t at risk, and he and Lex would do whatever they had to in order to convince her of that. But it wouldn’t be a secret that neither man intended to temper his desire for her if she truly was as sexually charged by them as they were by her.
Jax and Lex hadn’t actually discussed between themselves a ménage scenario with Lily. Just the muse one. But given their past propensity for threesomes, the possibility certainly existed. If it was something Lily was amenable to.
Jax felt they’d planted the seed. Not gone overboard with anything, given that this was all new and she really just needed to let everything they’d said simmer in the back of her head.
Lex’s train of thought evidently ran the same track, because he led Lily back to the armless chair she’d occupied previously. She sat, still looking a little confounded.
Lex squeezed her hand and said, “This in no way puts your job in jeopardy, Lily. Just relax and let us soak in the beauty of you. The effervescence that exudes from you.”
Her forehead crinkled as she inquired, “Effervescence?”
“Yes. You radiate a certain energy that’s very exciting and . . . alluring. Just make yourself comfortable and let Jax and me play some more.”
She nodded. “If you really think this helps.”
Jax grinned. “We’ve already come to that conclusion.”
~ * * * ~
Lily dressed in her uniform every morning, hair in a tight bun, and served Jax and Lex brunch at their location of choice, either on one of the many patios or on the terrace off the music room. She went about her duties while they worked on the sheet music. Then she changed, let her hair down, and slipped into an evening gown for their late-night practice sessions.
She did exactly as they requested, attending to them when needed, but also sitting quietly, getting lost in the compositions and their creative process.
Occasionally the two men went out for dinner and drinks with friends, but she could see with each passing day that they were determined to improve upon what they’d already built. And Lily admired and respected their dedication and commitment to perfecting each arrangement.
It wasn’t just that she was lusting after both men—which was incredibly difficult to contain when she was still trying to be professional—she also genuinely adored Lex and Jax. Liked them more and more as she got to know them better. She was privy to their confidential discussions and she found their international travels enthralling, their views worldly and intelligent, and their philanthropic efforts generous.
Which only served to intensify her desire for them to the boiling point.
Though both gave her lingering glances and neither abstained from suggestive comments, even in front of each other, neither Lex nor Jax had made a physical move on her.
Until one afternoon, toward the end of her first month at the estate.
Lily was hanging Lex’s dry cleaning in his dressing room and returning his polished shoes to the shelves above one of the many racks. Or, at least, trying to. She really couldn’t reach that far even on tiptoe, but all the other spaces were spoken for.
“Here, let me,” he said from behind her, catching her by surprise. And making her pulse jump.
He took the shoes from her raised hand and set them where they belonged. In doing so, his body brushed hers, his chest pressing lightly to her back, his pelvis to her butt. Setting every nerve ending ablaze.
“Have Greta get you a stepladder,” Lex told her in his casual, sexy tone.
“Good idea.”
He lowered his arm, resting his hand at the dip of her waist. He leaned close and drew in a long breath. “Your perfume is intoxicating.”
Liquid fire rushed through her veins.
Lily turned to face him. “You’re finally touching me.”
“Yes.” His gorgeous blue eyes shimmered warmly. “And you don’t mind.” It wasn’t even a question.
“No.” Otherwise she would have conveniently sidestepped him. And being a gentleman, he would have let her.
His friend Jax, however . . . She sensed that with his more aggressive nature, that man would cajole her into owning up to what she’d said to him on the terrace the night of the party—about her limited engagement at the mansion and the invitation that presented.
Lex was more of the coaxing kind. And she found that equally stimulating. So she gave him a soft smile.
His gaze dropped to her mouth. His expression morphed into a more contemplative one.
“You had valid points that night we discussed you being our muse and how we feel about you. Does it turn you on that we both want you, Lily?”
She swallowed hard. She’d practically been on pins and needles since she’d arrived at the estate. Following the evening when they’d expressed their interest in her . . . she’d all but waited with bated breath for one—or both—of them to corner her like this.
Yes, she’d needed to process. They’d obviously grasped that. But Christ. The fantasies had run rampant night after night. And staying in a suite between Lex’s and Jax’s—though additional suites separated them on either side of hers—had her brimming with excitement. She was in such close proximity to them on a floor that offered immense privacy. It’d taken all the willpower she possessed not to leave her bed and climb into one of theirs.
But now here was Lex, pushing the envelope.
So Lily brazenly confessed, “It does turn me on. Even more than when I met you individually. Which is certainly saying something.”
“Good.” His head dipped and his lips swept over hers in a feathery kiss that instantly tightened her nipples and further ignited her insides. He murmured, “Because taking it slow with you has been much more difficult than we’d anticipated.”
“I don’t just jump into things,” she told him.
“We figured as much.”
Lily’s breathing was shallow, her heart racing.
Lex seemed to carefully catalog every reaction she had to him—every reaction he incited.
His grin was a bit cocky now that she was all but swooning under his electric gaze, feeling a little light-headed at the nearness of him. At his mouth, still so close to hers that all she had to do was lean in for another kiss and fall easily under his spell of seduction.
And he knew that was exactly what she was thinking.
He nipped playfully at the corner of her mouth, making her toes curl.
“You’re teasing me,” she whispered, a dull ache echoing deep in her core over the way he toyed with her and the blatant need burning in his eyes. To claim her mouth? To claim her?
Lily didn’t actually think he’d take her right here and now, in his dressing room in the middle of the day.
But what a wicked web he was weaving! Lex appeared so captivated by her that it seemed as though he couldn’t stand another second of the flirtation without giving in.
Yet he didn’t immediately pounce.
She suspected Jax would be the one to get caught up in the moment and have his way with her if she gave him the right signal. Lex, conversely, seemed to enjoy the little cat-and-mouse thrill of the chase. Either approach would work with her when it came to these two men. The thought of how varied each would be in tempting her, drawing her in, excited her even more.
She had a feeling everything about their foreplay and eventual conquering of her—if that was what they were both intent on—would provide the sort of double whammy that would leave her limp and boneless.
And thoroughly satisfied.
Prompting Lily to say, “I like the proposition you made. What you and Jax want from me.” She pulled in a long stream of air, looking for a little boost of courage, and then she daringly told Lex, “I’m more than intrigued by the way you two look at me. Not just when you’re taking in the sight of me in a different dress or watching me bend over to grab something from the butler’s pantry.” She crooked a brow at him, wondering if he’d deny it.
Of course, he didn’t. Modern-day scoundrel that he was, Lex’s sexy grin returned.
She should be forewarned by all the zings ricocheting through her body. Yet she wasn’t able to focus on any red flags this time. Especially the way Lex was currently devouring her with his hungry gaze.
Then his head lowered to hers again and their lips tangled in the sweetest, most sensuous tongueless kisses that instantly ensnared her. Until her arms were twining around his neck and she was clinging to him, lost in the taste of him, the heat exuding from him, the feel of his hard muscles melding to her soft curves, and his hands sliding around to her backside, one palm flattening against her tailbone and the other cupping an ass cheek.
A shiver cascaded down her spine. Reverberated throughout her body.
“Lex,” she murmured against his mouth. “Are you feeling all of this?”