Quadruple Duty Read online

  It was totally unbelievable, the ad I’d read. I looked down at it a third time, just to make sure.

  ~ WANTED: COMMUNITY GIRLFRIEND ~

  Four (4) Army Specialists seek one very

  amazing, very open-minded woman for

  an exclusive relationship arrangement.

  YOU are young, smart, sexy, incredible,

  and ready to be pampered, spoiled, and

  treated like an absolute princess.

  WE are four strong warriors and best friends

  ready to love, share, and protect you

  on our sprawling lakehouse estate.

  Get all the benefits of being a military wife…

  without any of the heartache or loneliness!

  NO DRAMA NO JEALOUSY

  NO CRAZINESS NO BULLSHIT

  Just imagine it: four loving partners — powerful and passionate —

  sharing you equally, mind, body, and soul.

  LOOKING FOR WIFE MATERIAL - LONG TERM ONLY

  ALSO… BETTER BE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH US!

  “C’mon,” I smiled, looking around. “You’re putting me on, right?”

  But Kyle only shook his head. “I’m twenty-six. Know how many relationships I’ve been through?” he asked. “How hard it is, keeping a girlfriend when you can be deployed at any moment, and then gone for half the year or more?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I get all that, but still—”

  “Know how many military marriages actually make it? How many women give up on their relationships because they can’t stand being alone anymore?”

  I really didn’t. I imagined it was high, though.

  “And with Rangers, like us?” He shook his head. “It’s even worse. We disappear almost overnight. Return without notice. It drives a partner crazy, I’ll tell you. Not that I’d blame them for it.”

  I had to laugh. “So you’re willing to give some poor girl four times the heartache?”

  “No,” he said. “Actually just the opposite. In doing things this way,” he pointed at his phone’s screen, “you’re getting only a quarter of the heartache, because—”

  “—because you’d have three other lovers,” I finished for him.

  “Exactly.”

  I looked at him and saw truth in his eyes. Truth according to him, anyway. He actually believed this stuff. He saw it as a rational approach.

  “And you all live together. In this… lakehouse?”

  “It’s actually an old mansion,” he said. “We pooled our money together and bought it last year. Amazing place. It needs a hell of a lot of restoration though.”

  A sudden tingle stole up the back of my neck. That got my attention.

  “The four of us are like brothers,” Kyle went on. “Dakota and I served in the same unit. Ryan too. And Briggs... well, he just—”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Back up.”

  I couldn’t believe it, but he was serious. The ad was serious. This was something they really wanted to do.

  “You and your friends—”

  “Not friends. Brothers-in-arms.”

  “Fine,” I said. “You and your ‘war-brothers’ would actually go through with this? You’d share one girl? As in… well, you know…”

  “Share her sexually? Oh yeah.”

  A lump formed in my throat. Somewhere in my stomach, a whole flock of butterflies took flight.

  “Wouldn’t that create jealousy?” I asked. “I mean… other guys, you know, being with your girl while you were gone?”

  “Not other guys,” said Kyle. “Within the four of us, it’s all the same. We’d be a core group. A family unit. Kind of like we are when we’re deployed, only while at home too.”

  He noticed the jacket was slipping off my shoulder. Before continuing, he reached out and pulled it tighter around me.

  It was sweet.

  “And for the girl, she’d have four times the love,” Kyle shrugged. “Four times the attention. Four times the… well… ” He allowed the sentence to trail off with a wolfish grin.

  “I get it.”

  Kyle settled back on the bench and stared up into the night sky. “Look, you asked. So I showed you.”

  I swallowed. The lump just wouldn’t go down.

  “I know it sounds crazy. I don’t expect you to understand it. And…” he turned to face me. “And I’m sorry I kissed you. I mean, you certainly weren’t there to answer our ad, so that wasn’t fair.”

  “I kissed you back,” I admitted. “It’s not like I was innocent.”

  “Maybe. But for what we’re looking for? You’re obviously off limits.”

  Off limits… The words rang in my head. Almost like a challenge.

  “You were just a bystander back there. One who happened to be gorgeous, and alone, and so I—”

  “Rescued me from a shitty date?” I smirked.

  “Well yeah,” he laughed out loud. “You didn’t want to make deceptively short babies with that guy anyway, did you?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I sure didn’t.”

  “Well then no harm done,” said Kyle, turning his phone’s screen off. As he slipped it back into his pocket, I felt a sense of disappointment. Of missed opportunity.

  I didn’t want him to go.

  “You sure you’re not looking for a one-on-one girlfriend?” I asked coyly.

  He let out a long breath. “Sorry honey. Tried that too many times. The very definition of insanity is—”

  “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?”

  He sighed wistfully. “Damn. You really are my kind of girl.”

  I kept replaying our kiss in my mind, or rather, our series of kisses. The whole thing had been so good it was almost dream-like. I hadn’t felt that kind of electricity or instant connection in God-knows how long.

  Let it go, Sammara.

  My inner voice was being stern again, warning me like a overly-strict parent. I shoved it away in rebellion, then looked down to where our legs were still touching.

  “What if I climbed into your lap,” I said, climbing into his lap. “And kissed you until you forgot all about your silly ad?”

  I lowered my lips to his and drank from him again. Kyle kissed me back without hesitation, his hands going straight to my hips. Straddling him like this, I could feel the cool night air on the insides of my thighs. My little red bandage dress was cinching tightly up along my legs, but I just didn’t care.

  “You’re tempting,” Kyle murmured between kisses. “So fucking tempting…”

  I kissed his face, his stubbled cheek, the sharp, masculine line of his jaw. Soft kisses. Sweet kisses.

  “Then why resist?”

  “Because we made a pact,” he murmured into my hair. His mouth was on my shoulder now. Kissing. Chewing…

  I squirmed into him. A lump had formed in his lap, somewhere beneath the curve of my ass.

  “And you can’t change your mind?” I cooed into his ear. I rested my hands delicately on either side of his face. Pulled back just a little, to look into those stormy grey eyes. “I can’t change your mind?”

  Kyle sighed softly, breathing into my mouth. Our lips brushed ever so gently against each other. The heat between us was blistering.

  “I’m sorry no,” he said. “I’ve given my word we’d try this.”

  There was genuine sadness in his eyes. I was disappointed too, but at the same time, filled with an admiration that he could be this strong. This loyal…

  “Give me your phone again.”

  For five whole seconds he just stared at me, looking through me, into my soul. Then he shifted, and I felt the phone being pressed into my hand.

  What the hell are you doing?

  The screen was still on the ad. That crazy, crazy ad. I read it again and it took my breath away, even as he ground the not-insignificant bulge of his ever-hardening cock between the warm globes of my thong-covered ass.

  “This… ” I said as I called up the Messages page, “is just in case I want to get in touch with you.”

  I sent a text to myself so we’d both have each other’s information. In lieu of a message, I sent an actual screen-shot of the ad itself.

  Sammara stop!

  Kyle squeezed my hips, ten strong fingers making little dents in the supple flesh beneath my dress. I imagined how it would be if he were inside me, rather than pressed up against me… separated only by a few meager layers of blasted fabric.

  “So you’re giving me your number,” he murmured, “in case I abandon this whole crazy thing and decide I want a girlfriend again?”

  “Maybe…”

  I rolled my hips, eliciting a groan.

  “Maybe not.”

  He gasped as I bore my weight down on him, hard, one last time. Then I slipped from his warm lap, and back to the platonic safety of the cold park bench.

  Somehow I managed to stand on two wobbly legs. I removed his jacket, handed it back to him, then leaned forward until we were face to face again.

  “This is for saving me tonight,” I said, and kissed him one last time.

  The butterflies took off again, followed by sparks. Fireworks. Volcanic eruptions…

  When I leaned back again, his eyes were half-closed.

  “Goodnight my sexy soldier,” I said, raising my hand in salute. Kyle grinned broadly and saluted me back.

  “Goodnight my ivory princess,” I heard him say as I walked away.

  Four

  SAMMARA

  “So… how was your date?”

  Melissa looked at me expectantly from across her mug of steaming coffee. She was excited for me. Eager.

  I almost hated to disappoint her.

  “It was… interesting.”

  Her eyes flared, and I realized my mistake. I knew she immediately took the statement to mean that I’d slept with him.

  “Well, not that interesting. But still, not what I’d expected.”

  I launched into detail, telling her about how I’d been stood up — or rather, partially stood up — and then left the bar with a soldier named Kyle. I talked at length about the kiss. Hell, it got me excited all over again, even in the re-telling.

  “And then you went to a park, you said?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what happened there? More kissing?”

  “Yeah… sorta.” I stalled a little, trying to figure out what I should say and not say. I could show her the ad. I had it right on my phone. It would be easy. It would explain everything…

  “And then we sorta just exchanged numbers and left,” I said.

  Her entire expression changed. She was totally crestfallen.

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so.”

  Melissa was my best friend. She was already married though, and living vicariously through me. I could spice up her day a little. Tell her all about Kyle’s stomach-churning idea of sharing a girlfriend, and how it would work, and how the three other soldiers living in this old lakehouse estate were probably as ripped and shredded and beautiful as Kyle was.

  Instead I told her nothing.

  What are you hiding Sammara?

  That little voice again, nagging at me. Knowing exactly what I was thinking in the back of my mind, and dragging it all the way to the front.

  You’re thinking of calling him, aren’t you?

  I was. I definitely was. And that was probably a bad idea.

  It is a bad idea, the voice admonished. You should delete that number right now.

  “HELLO?”

  I blinked awake, as if coming out of a trance. Melissa was staring at me curiously.

  “So are you going to go out with him again?” she asked, probably for the second or third time.

  “No,” I said quickly. “I mean, I don’t think so.”

  “And why the hell not?” she exclaimed. “You said he was gorgeous. And shredded. And a great kisser!”

  “An amazing kisser,” I corrected.

  “There you go!” she laughed. “So why not call him?”

  You know why…

  I took a very deep breath, one that I let out as a long sigh. “Well, it’s… it’s complicated.”

  I laughed inwardly at my use of Kyle’s own explanation.

  “Tell me why,” Melissa said. She looked at me intently for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “Oh shit!” she cried. “He’s married!”

  “No, no,” I said. “Not married. No girlfriend either.”

  “Do you have any objections to dating a soldier?”

  “No…”

  “Shit, neither would I,” Melissa smiled. She leaned back in her chair. “I’ve always wanted an Army boyfriend! Or even the Marines. Or the Navy. Or the—”

  “There was something about him,” I said, “that just made him… off limits.”

  She eyed me shrewdly, her straight dark hair falling over one eye. Melissa knew me well enough to know when I was hiding something. But thankfully, she wasn’t one of those obnoxious girlfriends who had to know everything. She also knew when to leave well enough alone.

  “Alright then,” she sighed. “Back to the drawing board.”

  I nodded as I shoved my face in my mug. Too bad.

  “I still don’t know who shows up a half hour late to meet you,” she laughed. “I mean… what the hell was that guy thinking?”

  “Dunno,” I laughed.

  “You’re smart, you’re gorgeous, you’re successful…”

  I shook my head. “I don’t feel smart. I don’t feel gorgeous either.”

  And I’m not half as successful as you think… I thought glumly.

  “Bullshit,” said Melissa. “You might feel that way, yes, but that’s only because you’re too hard on yourself.”

  I knew my friend was doing her best to cheer me up. Right then though, I didn’t want it. I kinda wanted to be miserable. And I kinda wanted to just be alone. To think about Kyle…

  She tapped the table with one painted fingernail. I could tell her mind was working again. “Still sure you don’t want me to set you up with one of Rich’s friends?”

  “Nah.”

  “I mean, it probably beats throwing at the dartboard of some random dating site,” she reasoned.

  “I think I’m gonna sit tight for a while,” I said. “Leave well enough alone. I’m way too busy with work anyway. Dawn’s been putting the screws to me with all this commercial advertising, and I’m supposed to approve a whole bunch of stuff before I—”

  “Fuck Dawn. Fuck work. Fuck all that,” Melissa said dismissively. “You’ve got to make time for you, Sammara. You deserve someone. You deserve to be happy outside of your business.”

  I nodded and took the verbal beating. Or rather, the parental pep-talk.

  “Besides, Dawn’s not your boss, she’s your business partner.”

  I let out a burst of laughter. “Someone had better tell her that.”

  Melissa grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “No, Sammara. You tell her that.”

  I looked up, and noticed her expression was suddenly serious.

  “Yeah yeah,” I said. “I know.”

  Five

  SAMMARA

  I read the ad again. And again. And again after that. And each time I read it…

  It made me hotter and hotter.

  My stomach knotted up at the thought of it — not one guy, not two or even three… but four guys. All to myself. All at the same time.

  Same time?

  I had to admit, the fantasy was appealing.

  Yet in my heart I knew that’s all it was, a silly fantasy. I’d dipped my toes in the threesome pool before, back in college, when things were a lot more casual and responsibilities a lot less oppressive. But this wasn’t a Friday night threesome. It wasn’t even one of those raw, visceral gangbangs I’d watched on my computer, wondering the whole time how a girl actually gets herself into a situation like that.

  No, this was real life.

  In the end that’s probably what made it so hot for me, though. That it could actually happen. That there was this hot, beautiful guy out there — with three presumably hot friends — willing to not only share a girl for a night or a weekend, but to actually make her their permanent girlfriend together.

  Girlfriend…

  I read the ad again. Community Girlfriend. Wife Material. Long Term Only.

  Stretched out on my bed, I let a little laugh escape my lips. The funny part was that I thought I could do it. That I’d actually be good at being a girlfriend to four guys at once. After all, I was the master of multitasking. And I could handle myself around guys, no doubt. I’d actually been told I was a little too much to handle, which would be perfect in this scenario because there would be four times the manpower to handle me anyway.

  And my sex drive… well, that wouldn’t be a problem either.

  My fingers slipped downward, over my belly, piercing the lace waistband of my panties…

  Sex was something I was always arguing about. Either my past boyfriends complained I wanted too much of it, or the more insecure ones resented my prior sexual history. Of course there’d been a select few guys who could keep up with me, especially in the beginning. Some of those I held onto even after the relationship had gone bad. Because hey, a girl’s got needs.

  Nothing ever worked out for me though. Guys were guys, and they very often wanted to be the ones in charge. They wanted to initiate. They wanted to decide when and where, and any deviation from that plan often rattled their fragile egos.

  But four guys…

  I let my fingers wander, gliding down through my glistening slit. I’d been horny since last night. Horny since I’d showered and climbed into bed, to read this stupid ad one more time (five more times?) before bed.

  Four guys. Four military guys, with egos that probably weren’t all that fragile.

  Leave it alone, Sammara.

  The appeal was more than just physical too. Not only would they take care of me sexually, but I’d have four strong lovers to protect and care for me.

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