Three of Hearts Read online

  Avoiding his question completely, Mikki sunk into her seat with a mulish expression on her face. Looking around she felt a twinge of sorrow this would probably be her last ride on the luxurious plane.

  The jet had three separate compartments not including the cockpit. The forward cabin was for the plane staff, which consists of one chef, and two stewardesses, one for the day shift and one for the night shift seeing as how the flight was over seventeen hours.

  Kaito had just disappeared into that cabin, probably to deliver detailed instructions. Despite his creative nature, the man was regimented. That left her and Joaquin in the middle cabin complete with six plush seats in two rows, a wide screen projector for movies or presentations, on the rare occasion they had to do business in route somewhere, a bar, and half bath, and a dinette.

  The back cabin was a bed/bath combination, complete with a king size bed, a shower and separate toilet compartment. The only thing the flying hotel was missing was a Jacuzzi tub. The dynamic duo did like their creature comforts.

  Not that she could blame them. Both men had come from the school of hard knocks. Kaito’s mother had been a drugged out girlfriend of a small time thug in San Francisco. His mother had died of an overdose when he was six. His father had moved them to Los Angeles, where he died in a gang fight two years later. Kaito had been raised in the system, bouncing from foster homes to group homes until he was accepted to USC on academic scholarship.

  Joaquin had been adopted from an orphanage in Argentina as a baby by a well to do Orange County couple who believed they couldn’t have children of their own. When his adoptive mother became pregnant when he was seven, he was no longer wanted or needed. It was far too late to give him back, so they had kept him, but had made him very aware he wasn’t their biological child, declaring that he should be grateful they “rescued” him from life on the cruel South American streets. When they started treating him like a servant to their own child, he began running away. By the time he was fourteen, they had washed their hands of him completely. That’s when he met Kaito. The two had been inseparable ever since.

  Though Mikki felt honored to be let in their tight little circle, it was getting to hard to pretend she was satisfied with only being their friend. Somewhere in the five years she’d known them, she became okay with the fact she was fiending for two men, two best friends, at the same time.

  Had anyone told her before she left Tennessee she would ever contemplate having a ménage à trios relationship she would have slapped them for lying. She was a good girl, always had been. The only one of her mother’s five children who went to college. Hell, two hadn’t even bothered to finish high school. But her mother was gone now, she had no one to please but herself, and damn it, she wanted the dynamic duo for her own. Too bad she could never have them. But she would never in a million years admit that to Joaquin.

  “Mikki, are you going to answer me?”

  Looking into Joaquin’s clear eyes, she couldn’t lie. Whereas Kaito was dominant and demanding, Joaquin was sweet and loving. It amazed her sometimes how different the two men were. Kind of like two parts to a whole.

  “I didn’t want to be the pathetic, dateless wonder again this year.” Maybe she couldn’t lie, but she wasn’t about to admit the whole truth. While the two may be dateless right now, it wouldn’t take long for women to be all over them. It would tear apart.

  “You’re not dateless, chica. You are with us.”

  Mikki turned her head, afraid of what her eyes might show. Pity was not the emotion she wanted to invoke in either man. How she wished they would look at her as more than a friend and confidant.

  “Hey.” Joaquin gently pulled her face around to face his once again. The concern in his silver-blue gaze was too much. A single tear escaped despite her best efforts to hold it back. “What’s this, sweetheart?”

  She had expected him to wipe the tear away. It wouldn’t have been the first time. She didn’t expect him to lean forward and kiss the tear away. Her breath caught at the soft butterfly kiss against her cheek. When he moved the armrest between them up and pulled her onto his lap, she didn’t resist. Where the hell was this going? She had no idea, but she was desperate to see.

  “Mikki, honey, you know you mean the world to us, right?” Joaquin asked her, gently stroking her back as she lay against his chest.

  “Yeah, we’re good friends.” Did she sound as bitter as she felt? She hoped not.

  Pulling her upright so that she was facing him, he looked surprised. Damn, she had sounded bitter.

  “Is that what you think, Mikki? That this about friendship?”

  What hell else could it be? “Of course,” she replied with all the dignity she could muster. Yeah, she was pathetic but she didn’t have to look or sound like it. “You both probably felt sorry for the poor dateless black girl, so you decided to make me your date. It’s not rocket science. I would have done the same for the two of you, but we both know not having a date has never been a problem for you. Either of you, even if you do tend to share.”

  “Is that a problem for you?” Joaquin asked, searching her face. For what she couldn’t begin to guess. “The sharing.”

  “No, that’s who you are.”

  “You know that much about us, yet you think we are taking you as a pity date?” Joaquin asked incredulously.

  It was a stupid question to Mikki’s mind. Of course it was a pity date. They had never treated her as anything more than a good friend. One of the boys, so to speak.

  “You know, Michayla, for such a smart woman you can be incredibly dense.”

  Mikki swung around to find Kaito standing so close her nose hit his chest. She hadn’t even heard him approach. Her face burned with embarrassment. Admitting to Joaquin what she felt about this trip was one thing, admitting to Kaito was something else altogether.

  “Kaito,” Joaquin tried to calm Kaito’s temper, as usual.

  Just the thought really ticked Mikki off. What right did Kaito have to be angry? This was about her feelings, not his unreasonable attitude.

  “No, Joaquin. I have every right to feel the way I do.” She may have been speaking to Joaquin, but she didn’t take her eyes off Kaito. “Look, I know this means a lot to you guys, and believe me, that is the only reason I let you railroad me into coming.”

  Not exactly, true. She was here because they had begged her, commanded her, and shown up at her house to make damn sure she was on the plane.

  “I didn’t ask for you pity, but you insisted on dragging me along. I know it is beyond pathetic that I haven’t had a date in over a year, but you make it worse when you say things like, ‘You are our date.’ We all know I am your friend, nothing more. A good buddy to pal around with, someone you tell the intimate details of your sorted dating life to. The two of you would ever dream of asking out a girl like me, and you know it! Stop making it worse by trying to make me believe it is more than it is! It hurts enough without you rubbing salt into my wounds, thank you very much!”

  Mikki wished she could have swallowed the words as soon as they left her mouth. And to her horror, her unplanned confession was accompanied by tears following freely down her face, tears she couldn’t seem to stop. The last thing she wanted to do was to admit her feelings, however vaguely she had done so. Kaito stared down at her, looking every bit as fierce as he had before her little tirade. She could just imagine the expression on Joaquin’s face. Somewhere in between shock and horror, she would guess.

  Unable to think of anything else to do, she took the only avenue of escape left to her. She ran straight to the bedroom at the back of the plane and locked herself in. Throwing herself across the bed, she allowed the pent up frustration and longing to pour out of her body. It was too much, as she had known it would be.

  The sale of the company meant she wouldn’t have an excuse to see them, to be near them as she had in the past. That made all of her feelings come rushing over her in the past few weeks, threatening to choke her. She wasn’t losing her best fri
ends, she was losing the men she loved in a way she would have never acknowledged if not forced to.

  She loved them completely, utterly, madly. And they didn’t love her back, not the like a lover anyway. She might not have come right out and said it, but there was no doubt that they knew.

  They were intelligent men, and her words had been far from cryptic. The only thing she could do now was ride it out and pray the trip would fly by. Not likely, but a girl could hope. She would just stay in her hotel room as much as possible and avoid both men at all times until the final little party at Bisous, one of Paris’ hottest nightclubs. That was three days away.

  She conceivably wouldn’t have to face them until then, where she would have the shield of over a hundred of the company’s executives and friends to protect her from having any kind of meaningful conversation. Then she would fly home commercial and move to Atlanta.

  Chapter Two

  Kaito moved to go after Mikki, but Joaquin’s soft voice stopped him.

  “Let her go, Kaito. She needs to deal with what she’s feeling before we can lay any more on her.”

  Kaito scowled, looking toward the closed door, but threw himself into a chair nonetheless.

  “We need to tell her Joaquin. She needs to know.”

  Joaquin nodded sagely, but he didn’t think now was the right time. “And we will. Just not yet.”

  Kaito didn’t look encouraged, but Joaquin was sure this was the right course. To go charging into the room and dropping a bomb on her now would only cause emotional overload, and that was the last thing any of them needed.

  Michayla was only beginning to realize something he and Kaito had always known. Too bad, she was too blinded by her own hang-ups and insecurities to see both he and Kaito loved her every bit as much as she loved them.

  For her, the realization that what three of them had was far more than mere friendship had happened slowly, gradually, while he and Joaquin had fallen head over heels at first sight.

  Watching her grow from the scared, unsure little girl she had been when she first moved to California into the take charge, sexy, confident executive had been a test in patience Joaquin never wanted to relive. While he and Kaito delighted in each step she made in becoming the woman she was today, it had been increasingly difficult to keep a hands off attitude toward her.

  Her physical reaction to either one of them made it hard enough not to take what she probably had no idea she was asking for.

  The way her nipples pebbled whenever he brushed against her made his hands itch with the need to touch her. Her voice got lower, huskier whenever they were alone, which sent his blood stream flowing straight to his cock. It had gotten to the point where he couldn’t trust himself to be alone with her for very long. He just didn’t have the willpower to keep his hands off her.

  Joaquin and Kaito had a unique relationship. Although they were not bisexual, and actually far from it, they were in many ways closer than lovers, closer than brothers, even. They had been through the worst foster homes and group homes together, lived on the streets together, fought their way out of the gutter together. They both earned academic scholarships and worked their way through school.

  It was partly a symbiotic relationship, probably the type therapists would call unhealthy, but it worked for them. It kept them balanced. From the outside, it may have looked off or hard to fathom, but it worked for him and Kaito, and in the end that was all that mattered.

  Joaquin knew he was far too sensitive; he probably wouldn’t have survived the foster care system. Kaito gave him the strength he needed to push through. Kaito had been a hardened man of the world at fourteen. Joaquin had helped him find the inner child her had never been allowed to be. Now it was to the point they just couldn’t live without each other.

  J & K began in their dorm room and grew beyond their wildest expectations. With their success came women who would have stepped over them had they still lived on the streets. Now that they were ready to settle down and start a family, they needed a special woman who understood them.

  One that knew them inside and out. Someone who would love them both equally, as crazy as that might seem. They wanted someone who would be not only wife and mother, but also lover and friend without judgment. The moment Michayla had walked in for an interview as a junior accountant, they knew they had found “The One”.

  Attraction had been immediate. Although Mikki was fresh from Small Town, U.S.A., she never judged them, accepting them for who they were immediately. She had been there through the early growth pains when they were just breaking into the world market.

  Although J & K had been successful domestically, international business was a whole different ball game. Instead of hiring Mikki as a junior accountant, they had decided to groom her to be with them as their C.F.O., which would allow her to get to know them both. It had been a no brainer; let Mikki in to their inner sanctum, something they had never done before and see if what she was the one.

  There was no doubt with either man. Michayla Larissa Brown was perfect for them. She was everything a man could ever want in a woman. She was intelligent, funny, loving and loyal, not to mention she had a beauty that went to the bone and a killer body that wouldn’t quit.

  Her hourglass figure made men drool. It boggled the mind that Michayla didn’t have a clue how exceptionally sexy she was. She claimed she never had a date because men weren’t interested, but the truth was she pushed men away without realizing it. She never gave anyone a chance to try to talk to her, to their extreme pleasure. She had made her choice, and now it was time for them to let her know.

  Joaquin smiled as he watched Kaito stew. He knew how impatient his friend had become. Honestly, Joaquin felt the same way, but they had come too far to botch this now. Without realizing it, Mikki had become more than comfortable with the thought of a relationship with both of them. She just needed some time to process the fact they wanted her just as much. Probably more. They couldn’t rush her, not now.

  “So, how long to propose we wait before letting her know what we are up to?” Kaito asked gruffly. “We have seventeen hours in this metal bird. If you think I am going to sit up here all this time, you have another thing coming.”

  “We agreed to tell her on the plane, and we will,” Joaquin answered smoothly. “Just give it a few minutes.”

  Kaito muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Patience was not one of Kaito’s strong points. If Joaquin knew anything about Mikki, and he did, she would be out of the bedroom in less than twenty minutes demanding to know what Kaito had meant by saying she was dense.

  She just had to think about it for a little while. While she was far from predictable, Joaquin had made it his business to learn everything about her in the last five years.

  “What the hell do you mean I’m dense?” Mikki demanded storming out of the bedroom.

  Joaquin looked at his watch. Ten minutes, a new record. She stood fuming over Kaito, her hand on her hip, her little toes tapping impatiently. Joaquin had to swallow his laughter so as not to turn her anger on to him. Kaito merely glanced up at her and shrugged, a move guaranteed to piss her off even more. Instead of moving into the fray, as he usually did, Joaquin leaned back, content to watch what happened.

  “Are you going to answer me?” Mikki demanded when Kaito refused to say anything.

  “Nope,” Kaito answered slouching down in his seat.

  Joaquin noticed the tension in his friend’s body immediately. Something Mikki would have seen had she not been so mad. Kaito was ready to spring, but Joaquin was not worried Kaito would hurt Mikki. No, Mikki was about to get a dose of all the pent up sexual frustration they had both been feeling for a long time now. He couldn’t wait to see how she would deal with Kaito’s passion unleashed.

  Leaning down, Mikki poked her finger into Kaito’s chest to punctuate each word she said. “You. Called. Me. Dense. I. Want. To. Know. Why.”

  Kaito snagged her wrist before she was even finished the last word and d
ragged her down to his lap. In less than a heartbeat, Kaito’s hand snaked into the sensible bun she always wore, forcing her head back while his lips descended on her.

  Mikki didn’t even think to fight.

  One second she was frozen in shock, the next she was melting into Kaito’s demanding kiss. Joaquin squirmed in his seat as he watched his best friend ravish the mouth of the woman they both loved.

  It was hard to watch them without joining in, but he knew he had to end the kiss soon. They were straining against one another’s bodies, desperate to get closer. He watched Kaito’s hand creep up the heavy sweater she wore.

  When Mikki began to whimper and grind harder on Kaito’s lap, Joaquin’s mouth watered. He fisted his hands to try to ease the burning itch. As much as he wanted to be the one touching her, caressing her, Kaito needed this.

  Joaquin just had to make sure he didn’t take too far. That was the main reason he couldn’t join them now. For Mikki’s sake, this had to happen gradually. The worst thing that they could do would be to rush her emotionally. Her wanting them was one thing, but the reality was much, much more. She had to be sure; they had to give her that choice.