Party of Three: A H.O.T. Cops Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

headboard pushed against a wall not far from the front door. Fortunately, it also held a couch that unfolded to make a second bed, but the weird part was that even if she put on the brakes regarding the whole ménage à trois thing, the three of them would still be sleeping in the same room. And she hadn’t brought much in the way of pajamas, having planned to sleep only in a cami and panties like she usually did at home.
    However, Rogan had brought along vodka and orange juice, remembering as well that she liked screwdrivers. He’d mixed up a pitcher of them by the time the sun set, and that was helping her begin to forget about the weirdness. Or to ignore it or something. Because if Ethan and Rogan could act so easygoing about this, so could she.
    Now they sat around the small kitchen table, drinking and nibbling on chips, pretzels, and some brownies she’d made for the trip. Music played on the boom box Ethan had brought. And a deck of cards sat untouched near the open container of brownies—so far no one had dealt any, probably because conversation was keeping them well enough occupied.
    “Still keeping your nose clean, Rogan?” her boyfriend asked her ex across the table.
    Rogan cracked a small smile, and as she glanced back and forth between them, Mira realized for the first time ever the basic physical traits the two men shared. Thick, dark hair, enough muscles to be firm and sexy without looking like overgrown bodybuilders, and that olive skin that harked back to the Mediterranean. Anyone asked to describe them would say they looked similar. Rogan’s shoulders were broader—he was a bigger, slightly taller guy coming in at six-foot-three compared to Ethan’s six-foot-one—and maybe Rogan’s features were slightly more pronounced. But apparently she had a thing for tall, dark, and handsome and had never even recognized it until right now.
    “Tryin’,” Rogan answered, but the grin implied he might not be completely succeeding. Rogan had garnered a reputation among his Hostage Ops Team friends for skirting the fine lines of cop decorum after a ruckus in Grand Rapids that had involved him roughing up a belligerent speeder. He’d always claimed the other guy threw a punch his way first, and Mira believed him, but she knew not everyone did. And she also knew he’d been in more than a few bar fights while off-duty in his youth, as well. But she thought his attitude now, as always, provided evidence enough that he didn’t mind being seen as one of the bad boys of the group.
    “To tell you the truth,” Ethan said as he tipped a beer bottle to his mouth, leaving the screwdrivers to the other two, “I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long in calm little Charlevoix. What’s it been? Like six or seven years now?”
    “About six,” Rogan replied. Which sounded right to Mira. She and Rogan had gotten together soon after his arrival and had been a couple for over a year. Then she’d started dating Ethan around six months after their breakup.
    She decided to chime in now, too. “Yeah, I keep waiting to hear you’re leaving for some big, exciting city, going where there’s more action.”
    At this, Rogan simply shrugged and cast a glance her way. “Oh, you can find action pretty much anywhere if you’re in the right place at the right time.”
    And heat blossomed in her cheeks. Because his eyes told her he was talking about now, this weekend. Action. Was her blush as obvious to him in the low lighting as it felt to her? But then, maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe he could read it all in her eyes. The acknowledgment that he’d been invited here for sex—really naughty, dirty sex. Her trepidation about it all. And her … wanton desire.
    “Still,” she said, “I always remember how … pumped up you’d get telling me how much you enjoyed the hostage ops training you guys did together. And I always thought you seemed … cut out for a bigger place where you could really put those skills to use.” It