Bedding The Wrong Brother (Dalton Brothers Novels) Read Free

thought.  After a few seconds, Lucy shot her a sideways glance.  “Okay, so if not Rhys, what about Max?”
    Melina choked, coughed, and wheezed, “Max?”
    “Of course,” Grace said, nodding and smiling in delight.  “He has even more experience than Rhys.  And she’s completely comfortable with him.”
    “Not that comfortable,” Melina interjected, only to be ignored.
    “She trusts him,” Lucy agreed.  “He’s a hottie.  They’ve already kissed once—”
    “That was almost twelve years ago and he felt sorry for me—”
    “—and he’s flying in for her birthday.  He’s perfect.”
    “Perfect,” Grace echoed.  “Talk about sexual empowerment.” 
    Melina’s gaze bounced back and forth between her friends as her mind frantically tried to come up with a reason why sleeping with Max was a bad idea. 
    She couldn’t come up with one. 
    Still, it would be humiliating for Melina to cave so soon.  Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “And exactly what sexual empowerment issue would you two be addressing during my crash course in satisfying a man?”  She looked over at Grace, who’d started to braid a strip of her long pale hair.  “Grace?”
    Grace stopped braiding, bit her lip, then shrugged, her mouth twisting into a sardonic smile.  “No point in denying my greatest fear, now is there?  My birthday’s two weeks after yours, so I’ll try to find the man I fear doesn’t exist—the man who can get me off.  I’m sure it will just lead to another weekend of frustration, but as long as I can keep my vibrator handy, I’m willing to suffer for the cause.”
    Although she felt herself softening, Melina didn’t reach out to her friend.  This challenge had been Grace’s idea.  Maybe she needed it more than Melina did.  She hadn’t dated in almost a year, convinced that if she couldn’t even attain pleasure with a man, there was no point in putting up with one.  Lucy, on the other hand, put so much stock on pleasure that she often put up with a man’s failings longer than she should.  Melina turned to her friend, keeping her face impassive despite the scowl on Lucy’s face.  Lucy’s birthday wasn’t for a few months, but it was a big one, the big 3-0. 
    “Lucy thinks she should get a pass on this one,” Lucy said.  “I’m fearless when it comes to sex, you know that.  I’ve tried everything there is to try.  There’s no reason—”
    “You fear intimacy,” Grace said gently.  “You only date jerks, guys who are never going to commit to you—” 
    “Just because I happen to love brooding, creative men with an edge does not mean I fear intimacy,” Lucy protested.
    “It’s one weekend, Lucy.  One weekend with a nice guy you normally wouldn’t give a second look,” Melina clarified.
    “A nice guy?”  Lucy looked outraged.  “Oh, sure.  For your birthday weekend, you get to ask a hot friend to show you everything he knows in bed.  Grace gets to have someone pleasure her for two days straight or die trying.  What do I get?  A nice guy who probably doesn’t know a cock-ring from a cockatoo.”  She held up a hand to forestall Melina’s response.  “But fine.  If you two can do it, then so can I.”
    Lucy paused and smiled sweetly, which—from her—was the equivalent of a big, flashing “danger” sign.  “I call the stakes.  Anyone who puts their plan in motion and sticks with it the entire birthday weekend, regardless of the results, gets a full day of pampering at Silk Spa. Anyone who chickens out has to get up in front of my Women’s Studies 101 class and explain why.  In excruciating detail.  And answer questions afterwards.” 
    Lucy stuck out her hand, palm down.  After a brief hesitation, Grace placed her hand gently on top of it.  Melina’s hands curled into fists.  Her gaze landed on the magazine that Lucy had been reading, the one with the sex survey she’d read through earlier.  She’d committed one paragraph to memory: