WarriorsApprentice (7 page)

Tybor felt his lips stretch into an answering grin. “Maybe
not that.” He slumped his shoulders against the wall. “For now, we’ll go with
the plan we have, with a slight variation. Both of us will attempt to seduce
Judie Scanlon, and see which one of us she prefers.”

Huon nodded. “And the other thing? Between you and me.”

“We ignore it.”

Chapter Three

Judie Scanlon sat in Harry’s Bar, listening to the soft
sweep of the piano, watching the door, waiting for one or both of the men to
arrive. She clutched her drink in her hands, holding the glass tightly to still
their shaking. She couldn’t believe she’d been so bold. Huon asking to sit at
her table hadn’t surprised her. Crowds flocked to Venice, especially for
Carnevale, all of them eager to become, however temporarily, a part of the
magic that was the city.

But from the moment she’d raised her eyes and made contact
with Huon Green’s electric-blue ones, an odd compulsion had driven her. He was
young and gorgeous, but she’d seen hundreds of young and gorgeous men in her
time, and none of them had caused that sudden hitch in her heartbeat. His
boyish face looked wide-eyed and innocent, but he carried himself with the
physical confidence of a man who knew his own strength and had no need to
flaunt it to the world at large. The contrast unsettled her. He seemed at once
both too young and disturbingly old.

Then his colleague, Ty Borland, had swaggered in. His body
language shouted, “Here is a man who has known the world, who has experienced
hardship and overcome it all.” If there was any softness in Ty Borland, he kept
it well-hidden. Even his approach to her had a hard, glittering edge. He
promised excitement and adventure but not commitment, not tenderness.

She wasn’t a fool and she wasn’t completely inexperienced.
She could have either one of them. Each had sent the message loud and clear.
Tonight, when they joined her, she would have to decide. Soft and tender—perhaps
someone she would have to teach and coax—or hard, wild and demanding.

Her choices walked through the door together and her breath
faltered. Huon wore a dinner suit, tailored to make the most of his slender
frame. He looked cool and elegant. Ty looked burlier, rougher, in his jeans and
leather jacket, and together the pair of them looked like one of her erotic
fantasies sprung to life. How could she ever decide between two such
magnificent and wholly different men?

Ty looked around and spied her, striding forward
confidently. Huon spotted her a second later and stretched out his steps,
pacing along at Ty’s side so they arrived at the table together.

She licked her lips, then realized what she’d done and
winced. “Hi.”

When had her voice dropped two tones and developed a velvet
rasp? She sounded like a nineteen-thirties movie siren. If she didn’t watch out,
the next words out of her mouth would be, “Come up and see me some time.”

Except the time was now and here they were. The two men sat,
Ty opposite her, Huon to the side. She suppressed a small grin. Ty knew what he
was doing, all right. Every time she looked up, she saw him. To talk to Huon
she had to twist her head slightly to the side.

Huon seemed to realize that at the same time she did. He
moved his seat closer to hers so their knees touched. Her eyes widened but she
didn’t move away. Ty’s head jerked up and he glared at Huon. Huon lifted one
shoulder.

Tension and male rivalry arced across the table. Judie’s
lips twitched. Her days were spent surrounded by men, but they remained grimly
focused on the job they had set themselves. They saw her as an adjunct to their
task, a facilitator, an intellect uninvolved in the physical side of their
mission. No one saw her as a desirable woman with needs and hungers.

Until tonight. Huon and Ty knew nothing about her, had asked
only the most basic questions, yet she knew they wanted her. Ty’s eyes were
heavy with the heated promise of sexual adventure. He didn’t say much. He
didn’t have to. Soon, Judie knew, he would stand and hold out his hand and she
would put hers in it and follow wherever he led. He tempted her like dark
chocolate or the warm golden brandy he sipped.

A shadow around one of his eyes, dark and purplish, drew her
attention. “You’ve been hurt,” she murmured.

“It’s nothing.” He shrugged. “A training accident.”

Huon leaned forward to brush a stray wisp of hair away from
her mouth and she noticed a graze on his knuckles. They’d been fighting each other.
Over her?

Some deep part she hadn’t known existed stirred and awoke,
responded to the nuances of primitive mating rituals. Her response shocked and
excited her at the same time.

“You wouldn’t fight over a woman,” she breathed, running one
finger over Huon’s scraped skin. “Would you?”

Huon stuttered “No. It’s not… We didn’t.”

“And if we did fight over a woman, a particular woman,” Ty’s
smooth voice cut in, his focus locked on her, “it still wouldn’t solve our
problem. It’s not our decision to make. Who would you choose, Judie?”

The heady presence of male pheromones swirled around her.
Huon leaned in, his shoulder brushing against hers, and Ty’s heavy-lidded eyes
held her gaze across the width of the table. How could she choose between them?
She took a gulp of wine and slammed the empty glass down with nerveless fingers.
With the clatter a thought exploded into her brain. She could have them both.
She didn’t have to be circumspect, didn’t have to choose. It didn’t have to
interfere with carrying out her duties, no one had to know. She looked from one
to the other. Took a deep breath. Committed herself to one night of wild
passion.

“Ty, Huon, would you like to come back to my apartment?
For…” Her courage deserted her. “For coffee.”

Both men stood. Huon moved to her side, helped her rise,
then put his hand on the small of her back, guiding her through the bar and out
into the Piazza San Marco. The cool night air made her head swim. She staggered
and the men reached to support her.

A look she couldn’t interpret passed between Huon and Ty.
Neither of them spoke again as they walked side by side through the streets,
over a small humpbacked bridge, down another narrow alley until they arrived at
the edge of one of the smaller canals. Across the water, buildings leaned
together in ragged rows, their windows darkened hollows in walls bleached
bone-white by the moonlight. The romance of Venice could be dark and dangerous.

A small shiver skittered across her skin. The presence of
two men beside her made her feel protected, their strength comforting, their
warmth countering the chill breeze blowing off the water, their reality holding
at bay fear of things unseen.

Her apartment building loomed out of the darkness beside
her. “This is where I live.”

She dug in her bag for her keys and opened the ornate outer
door, punched in the alarm code and ushered the two men inside.

“My apartment is upstairs,” she said and began to climb.

Ty walked beside her, turning his head from side to side,
looking around him as if he were absorbing the sight and feel of the place. The
unique architecture of Venice often had that effect on visitors. Huon walked
behind them, his tread so quiet she was about to turn to see if he was still
there, but Ty suddenly asked, “What is on this floor?” He pointed toward
Brian’s office. “It doesn’t look like apartments.”

“It’s not,” she replied. “My boss has leased this whole
building and the first two floors are offices and ah…” She hesitated. She
didn’t want to mention her laboratory and she certainly didn’t want to get into
a discussion of what she did there. “Workspaces. Brian, my employer, has a set
of rooms on the second floor as well. The third floor is empty apart from my
apartment.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper as she climbed past the
corridor that led to Brian’s rooms. Everything about Brian, from the small
personal space he allowed himself to his demeanor, was bare and grim. His focus
on his self-appointed task was total, leaving no room for relationships or fun.
Cowardly as it was, she didn’t want to run the risk of having to explain Ty and
Huon to him.

At the head of the stairs she moved forward to open the door
to her apartment. Ty held back to allow her to go through. She’d only taken one
step when she heard a sound behind her. She spun around but saw only Huon
standing there, his face calm. Although he showed no shortness of breath, the
air seemed to swirl around him as though he had rushed up behind her and only
just brought himself to a halt. She shrugged, dismissing the possibility, and
stepped forward. The men followed her inside.

Two powerful males standing in her tiny living area made the
available space seem even smaller, slamming her up against the reality of what
she’d done by bringing them home. A hard lump formed in her stomach, sending out
smaller offshoots to lodge in her throat.

“Would you…” The high, thin tone of her voice surprised her
and she coughed and started again. “How do you like your coffee?”

Ty leaned against the closed door and folded his arms across
his chest. “I’m not here for coffee, Judie.”

“You’re not?” Of course he wasn’t. The question made her
sound like an idiot.

“We all know why we’re here, don’t we?” Ty stalked toward
her, powerful, dangerous and all the more attractive because of it.

“I hope we do.”

Huon’s breathy interjection surprised her. The years spent
studying for her doctorate, the lifetime spent thinking of herself as a geeky
egghead, had left
her
bereft of the sexual confidence she needed to be
calm and assured in this situation, but she couldn’t understand how Huon, with
his handsome face and gorgeous body, had managed not to amass a stack of
conquests. And yet, his tongue flicked out to moisten his lips and his gaze
darted from her to Ty and back again. If she was nervous, Huon was more so.

Ty’s confidence radiated out in waves, encompassing them
both. “That’s what you want, isn’t it, Judie? Not to make a choice. You want
Huon. And me.”

“Yes.” She’d meant to say it out loud. Meant it to sound
firm and definite, but no sound emerged, just the sibilant rush of air on the
final “s”, like steam sizzling on her fevered body.

Ty understood her anyway. He prowled toward her, peeling off
his jacket and shirt as he came. His chest made her mouth go dry. Muscles
rippled down it, skin stretched tight and hairless. By the time he reached her,
his shirt lay on the floor. He threaded his fingers through her hair to pull
her close, his lips hovering a fraction of an inch from hers.

“You want me, don’t you, Judie?”

She nodded.

He closed the gap and this time when he spoke each word
brushed against her mouth. “And you want Huon?”

She nodded again.

Behind her, a tentative hand slipped around her shoulders,
the gentle touch sending a flurry of shivers racing down her spine and
skittering across her skin.

“I haven’t done anything like this before,” she whispered, aware
of the solid presence of Huon at her back, her eyes locked on the dark,
shadowed depths of Ty’s.

Huon leaned in, nuzzled the hollow behind her ear and
whispered, “I haven’t either, but I can’t wait to try it.”

The knowledge that a threesome was new to him too gave her a
little confidence.

“How will we… What should I do?”

“Whatever you feel like doing.” Ty’s hypnotic voice soothed
her, soft and deep, taking away tension and inhibitions.

His mouth was still so close to hers that she breathed his
air, smelled his scent, every breath seducing her, drawing her under his spell
until even the beat of her heart, the pulse of blood through her veins, matched
itself to his, yielded to his control.

A fraction of a movement and his lips fastened on hers,
parting them, his tongue sweeping in. His arms tightened around her and he
lifted her off her feet, carrying her to the bed and depositing her on the
covers. Through the blood-red haze of desire she saw Ty look at Huon and nod,
the gesture accompanied by a slight movement of his eyes. No words were spoken,
yet she knew a message had been sent because Huon scrambled onto the bed beside
her, shifting her until she lay with her head in his lap, his knees on either
side of her, his hands stroking her arms.

Ty leaned over her. “We want you naked.”

He ran his fingers down the center line of her shirt,
leaving the buttons lying undone in their wake. Again he made eye contact with
Huon, who lifted her to ease the shirt from her shoulders, then fumbled briefly
at her back to release the catch on her bra. Ty bent over, his tongue running
around the edge of the scrap of lace until his teeth closed on it and pulled it
away.

When her breasts lay exposed she heard Huon’s brief intake
of breath, then his hands slid down her arms and across to cup her, his thumbs
grazing her nipples.

He leaned forward and whispered, “Beautiful. You’re
beautiful.”

The slight tremble in his voice, as if he were worshiping
some rare and exalted creature, the warm wash of his breath, sparked across her
nerve endings and her back arched. Instantly, Ty slid his hands under her
buttocks, lifting her upward so her legs parted. He knelt between them while
his long fingers moved, working her skirt over her hips and down her legs. She
felt the heat of his palms return to her buttocks and stop there. His eyes
focused on hers.

“What?” Huon asked. “Why have you stopped?”

Sliding one hand out from beneath her while supporting her
weight on the other, Ty ripped away the tiny straps of her thong panties and
pulled them off her, holding them out to Huon.

“Oh,” he breathed, “They are… I’ve never seen undergarments—”

“They are outrageous, scandalous and the sexiest thing I
have ever seen,” Ty cut him off. “If I’d known this was all you had under that
skirt,” he licked his bottom lip, “the patrons of Harry’s Bar would have been
shocked out of their minds.” His voice lowered to a sexy drawl. “Huon and I
might have taken you there and then.”

“They’re…they’re not unusual,” Judie panted. “Everyone wears
them these—” The last word choked into silence as Ty lowered his mouth to her
damp mound and took a long, lingering lick. When his teeth scraped against her
clit she groaned, a sound echoed in her ear by Huon’s deeper voice.