Chapter 2 — MONDAY — Unexpected Developments
It was surreal. Jack Palmer was sitting in the hotel's sumptuous breakfast room, listening to Roxie and Jade chat casually about the Fashion Show. It was as if last night's full-blown threesome had never taken place. Did every woman treat sex as offhandedly as these two? He couldn't get his head around it.
The women had ordered yogurt and fruit and he suddenly felt like a glutton with his pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Roxie was snuggling against him in the booth and although he could occasionally feel her warm green eyes staring lovingly at him, for once he avoided her gaze. They had some serious talking to do.
He couldn't deny the arousal he'd felt throughout their mind-blowing sex last night. It was easy to understand how people were seduced into that sort of lifestyle. But why did Roxie think it was right for them? She'd promised she had put the wilder side of her past behind her, so why had she gone along with Jade's suggestion? They didn't need anyone else in their relationship—and that meant he needed an explanation from his best friend and lover.
But he wasn't going to knee jerk. He knew he was on edge as a result of Roxie's return to modelling and he still hadn't come to terms with that decision.
He'd never deny her what she wanted, but who could blame him for being extra careful after the way the DeVere case had exploded in their faces? It had cost him his career in the London Met, and he had yet to be convinced that Nikolay Volkov was anything other than the same sort of low-life who preyed on others. If his instinct was correct, then his girlfriend's new contract with Volkov Modelling could be in danger of exposing her and them to that world again.
He glanced at Jade while the two women chatted happily. Despite his concerns, the stirring in his loins was instant. The African model was braless under the yellow tank top and her thick nipples were making firm indentations against the material. What man in his right mind could resist such a vision?
He hadn't been able to.
He'd fucked her last night, and she'd fucked him. He'd never experienced anything quite like that. His lovemaking with Roxie could be just as wild, but there was always an undercurrent of the love between them. With Jade, it was sheer carnal sexuality. The act was everything.
Sometimes Roxie had joined in during their coupling and at others she was content to watch, smiling encouragingly whenever he glanced at her. She'd even masturbated infront of them as Jade had gyrated on him, driving his sexual need ever higher. Then they'd reversed their positions, and he was making love to Roxie, as well as Jade. Despite his years in the Vice Division, the two women had used their combined bodies in ways he'd only dreamed about.
And when he'd needed to rest, the two women had eagerly taken over. Their fabulous bodies had been sheathed in perspiration as they'd pleasured one another, sexual equals as they'd succumbed to orgasm after orgasm...
He shifted on his chair. Goddamit, he was rock hard again.
"What do you think?" he heard Roxie's voice say.
He glanced up to find both women looking at him. Damn, he'd been so engrossed in his thoughts of last night that he hadn't realised she'd been talking to him.
"Sorry ... what?"
The two women laughed together.
"You were miles away," Roxie said.
"I know where," Jade chuckled, resting her chin on her palm as she gazed at him across the table. "Which of us were you mind-fucking, Jack? Me, I hope."
She laughed out loud as the blush hit his cheeks, although this time Roxie didn't join in. The redhead brushed away an errant strand of hair from over her left eye as she sent him a bashful look. She understood the conflict inside him.
"Now I know why you stayed in retirement so long," Jade purred, turning to Roxanne. "If I had a man with stamina like Jack, I wouldn't come out of my bedroom for six months, either!"
Jack felt his girlfriend tense, but Jade wasn't letting up.
"Six months is a long time, Roxie. What made you drop out of the limelight?"
It wasn't an easy subject to talk about. A good friend of Roxanne's had been brutally murdered in her apartment by a killer who was looking for her. It had been a case of mistaken identity. He'd been hired by Dominic DeVere—Roxanne's employer and former lover—a man Roxie had thought she could trust. Palmer had rescued her from the subsequent carnage, but nearly lost his own life when the whole sorry affair had ended in a violent shootout with the assassin.
"It's just hard ... dealing with it. Even now," Roxanne eventually said, her voice faltering. "Savannah was a good friend of mine."
"Ah, yes, Savannah," Jade sympathetically nodded. "Such a tragedy, she was so young."
"Just nineteen..."
Roxie had explained to Palmer that she'd seen so much of herself in the young model and had taken Savannah under her wing when they'd worked together. It was still difficult to believe that such a terrible thing could have happened to someone so beautiful, so sweet...
"Did they ever catch the burglar?" Jade asked.
The tears instantly began to form in the corners of Roxanne's green eyes.
"No," she meekly said.
Because of the political ramifications, the murder had been spun as a burglary gone wrong. It was necessary, they'd told her, but the guilt was still a heavy burden. That feeling would never go away.
"Anyway," she continued, wiping away a tear with her fingertip. "After that, I just needed to take some time off and think about my life. It puts things in perspective, you know? I had it all, or so I thought. The career. The money. The trendy lifestyle. I thought I was unstoppable. Then I came home and ... and..."
Palmer gave her a comforting hug. Despite his reservations over their long night of sex, moments like this reminded him of how he'd fallen in love with this beautiful redhead. Six months had passed since the case had exploded in their faces but he knew it would take much longer than that for her to be able to cope with the series of events. Especially as she still blamed herself for Savannah's death...
"It turns out I'm just as human as the next girl," she said, sucking in her breath. "But luckily I met Jack. He's the best thing that ever happened to me."
Palmer felt his stomach wrench at the words. Roxanne was the best thing to happen to him, too. He just didn't want anything to spoil that. Instinct told him that last night's lovemaking, Roxie's new modelling contract and Nikolay Volkov himself were all barriers to their future happiness.
"Jack saved me," Roxanne added, giving a nervous laugh.
She pulled him into a soft kiss, and then snuggled her body against his again. Her boyfriend hated the hero worship talk, but she would be dead now if it wasn't for him.
"I was assigned to her case," Palmer simply said, stepping around the details.
"Her case? Like, you're a social worker?"
