Wednesday Words: Raising the Bar

A new excerpt from RAISING THE BAR, which releases next week from Samhain!

Warning: Steamy. Read at your own risk...m/m/f romance

Dylan laughed. He’d been laughing a lot tonight. Who would have guessed that Harper Reynolds could be so entertaining? Not a stereotypical building contractor more interested in beer and tits and ass than a good conversation. Harper had a keen intelligence and an eye for detail that intrigued Dylan. Like peeling back the layers of an onion, Dylan kept learning more about the man the longer they talked.

“Like you, I have no preference,” he answered Harper’s question. “It boils down to how I feel about a particular person more than what gender they are. I love the female body. It’s different, filled with curves and softer flesh. Kissing a woman is sexy, warm.” He stared at Freddy, unable to resist looking at her. That woman he wouldn’t have minded getting to know better. Then he turned back to his dining partner. “But a man is harder. Firm, hot, and the sex, if done right, can go from zero to sixty in seconds.”

“Yeah. You have a nice way with words.” Harper seemed closer, and his dark brown eyes looked hungry. “You ever been with two people before? A ménage?”

“N-no.” Dylan cleared his throat, embarrassed to have a rock-hard erection while talking to Harper at the bar, for God’s sake. “Not that I haven’t fantasized about it, but reality and recriminations could be ugly the morning after.”

Harper pulled back and frowned. “Recriminations? For what?”

“I don’t know. Two people have a hard enough time handling emotions and issues in a relationship. Then you throw in a third? Someone’s bound to feel left out at some point.”

Harper’s frown cleared and he laughed. “Man, you are way overthinking it. Imagine shoving into a warm pussy while sucking a guy off. Two sets of hands touching you everywhere. Sex on top of sex. You lying between two people set on making you come, over and over again.” Harper took another drag of beer. “I am so fucking hard right now.”

“You like to share, don’t you?” Dylan was proud of himself for not sounding as if he were strangling on his own desire. Everything Harper had said seemed drawn out of his own psyche. And, right now, he had a difficult time not imagining himself between Harper and Freddy. As if the woman would consent to a threesome with a virtual stranger.

“And that’s another thing,” Dylan added, trying to keep the conversation on an even level. More intellectual, less prurient. “Finding normal people who want to engage in something outside the norm isn’t that easy. Especially since I have to be discreet. My profession kind of dictates I not be so outwardly crazy.”

“You think a threesome is crazy? Interesting. I’d pegged you as much more liberal in your views.”

Dylan frowned. “I am. I don’t judge, and I think anyone who wants to explore himself should, without fear of reprisal.”

“Oh man. You are so sexy when you talk like that.”

Dylan blinked. “Like what?” Every time Harper looked at his mouth, Dylan grew breathless.

“Fear of reprisal? You’re better than my twelfth grade English teacher. You’re sexy and you use big words.”

Dylan shook his head. “You’re an idiot.”

“Maybe.”

Dylan lowered his voice. “Have you ever had a threesome?”

“In college. But I was too young to really appreciate it. As I grow older, though, I wonder a lot about all I missed. I’m not getting any younger, you know. A little over a year ago, I ended up joining this place. I thought I’d find like-minded people who might want to play around. And then I was hit with a ton of work.” Harper sighed. “As thankful as I am to sock the money away, work has played hell with my social life.”

“I can relate.”

“I know. That’s why I think this place could work for you.” Harper pushed his plate away and finished his beer. “Come on. Let me show you around.”

Dylan had already finished his food. He went for his wallet, but Harper stopped him by covering his hands.

“I put it on my tab. You can pay me later.”

“Okay.” Dylan looked to where Harper still had a hold on him. “You going to let me go?” It intrigued him to be smaller than someone else. Not that Dylan stood heads above all his peers, but he didn’t date larger men. He’d never wondered why, just took it as his type.

Yet with Harper, he couldn’t decide if he liked the man being larger than him or not. Because he had a feeling Harper was physically stronger as well. Harper showed every sign of being dominant, physically and mentally. What would that mean in the bedroom, where Dylan normally called the shots?

“For now, Doc.” I’ll let you go for now, he was saying. “Come on. There’s something you need to see.”

Curious, Dylan followed him from the bar, through the house—though mansion was a better description. They passed a billiards room, a closed-off smoking lounge that they thankfully avoided, an indoor pool and hot tub area, and then headed for a grand stairway guarded by a large man who nodded at Harper as they passed.

“Second floor is for members only. But don’t worry. You’re with me.” Harper continued up the stairs. They passed a number of rooms.

“How large is this place?”

Harper stopped before a door and withdrew a keycard from his back pocket. “It’s got a good forty rooms. Used to be a hotel back in the day, and they’ve since added to it. We have nearly a hundred members, but membership is by invitation only.”

They entered and Dylan asked, “So who invited you?”

But Harper didn’t answer. Just as the door closed, he slammed Dylan against the wall and kissed the breath out of him.

Dylan gasped, stunned and so turned on by Harper’s force he couldn’t breathe. He kissed Harper back, angling for dominance, and found to his shock he couldn’t manage it. Instead, Harper led. The bigger man threaded his hands through Dylan’s hair to hold him steady while he worked Dylan with his mouth.

“Fuck. You taste so good. I need you, right now. Gotta have you,” Harper muttered as he sucked at Dylan’s neck.

Dylan arched his head, baring more of his throat.

“That jacket is hot. Everything about you turns me on,” Harper admitted. He pulled back to stare into Dylan’s face. “You’re single, I’m single. I’m safe, and just talking to you tells me you’re not the type to take risks.”

“I’m with you, aren’t I?” Dylan breathed. It annoyed him to think he wasn’t a risk taker, and more, that Harper knew that much about him after such a short time together. The man seemed to have the ability to read him much too easily.

“Are you?” Harper ground his hips against Dylan’s, and Dylan moaned at the hardness rubbing against his own.

“Fuck.”

“Oh yeah. You have no idea what I want to do to you right now.”

“I think I might.” Dylan had to look up to meet Harper’s gaze. “So now what?”

“Now I call the shots. I make you come.”

RAISING THE BAR