Party for Three Read Free Page A

laughing
and murmured words. "Lover boy is at it again."
    She pushed herself away suddenly aware they
had an audience.
    Sean looked disappointed that their kiss
ended abruptly. "You know my family has a tradition of giving the
birthday girl spankings."
    Sherry pursed her pink lips, not at all
pleased with the idea of being spanked at her age. "You would have
to tie me down first, Mister."
    "I don't know, you would probably like that
too." He growled in warning.
    When did Sean ever talk to her like this?
They had always kept things on a friendly level, but Sherry liked
seeing this new side of him. He was primal and responding to her on
a very sexual level.
    "I probably would." She responded feeling a
little breathless and just a little shocked that this sexual
attraction was so intense on someone she always felt was just a
friend. He irritated her on an almost daily basis.
    "I know you would." He whispered just low
enough for her to hear. His stormy gray eyes were intensely focused
on her as he let her go.
    She wasn't sure she wanted to be let go.
Suddenly she felt so cold. So alone.
    The song suddenly ended and she was brought
back to reality and once more surrounded by the group of friends
and coworkers. Sherry pretended to be unaffected for the rest of
the evening.
    She pretended to have fun and plastered a
smile on her face that was as wide as Texas, all of it hid what she
was really feeling. She wondered just what it was that Sean had
done to her. He knocked her off balance and left her all confused.
She was happy with their friendship, and it seemed he was too.
After their exhibition on the dance floor, he was not paying her
much attention. He made it a point to ignore her, as if nothing at
all had happened between them moments ago. Well what was a girl to
do?
    Two could play at that game.
    Sherry began to wander away from the party,
and down the wooden stairs that winded down the cliff. The stairs
led to a boat dock and it was covered by some trees, that would
give her a little privacy and some time to herself. Sean had too
many toys for someone his age.
    Sherry had never talked to him about it. But
he was either in debt up to his eyeballs, or made a lot more than
she did. Maybe he was one of those trust babies that she was always
reading about. The ones who could buy their houses anywhere they
wanted or who did not have to work.
    It would explain the twenty-five foot long
cabin sail boat parked in his dock. The boat wasn't brand new, but
it was not cheap. It had lots of trim woodwork, and the sails were
down, everything carefully packed up and protected from the
weather.
    If he was a trust baby, then why was he
working? None of it made any sense to her.
    Her heels clipped the wooden planks under
her feet. She took another sip of her wine, leaning against the
railing. There was no beach down here, just the cliff and the
water’s edge. The wind made gentle ripples in the water under the
pier, and the boat drifted slightly rubbing against the rubber
bumpers on the dock.
    Masculine footsteps interrupted her reverie.
Sherry turned sharply to abruptly face the intruder of her thoughts
surprised anyone would follow her down here.
    Seeing Alan surprised her. The look on his
face suggested he might be here to finish business he started
earlier. But she had not even had a chance to talk to Sean yet.
    Uh-oh. This could confuse things in her life
more than she wanted. Did she want to pursue Alan or Sean? She had
not even had a chance to think things out yet, and the wine was
beginning to make her feel lightheaded and way too warm. Or was
that Alan?
    Perhaps it was time to go.
    Alan caught her eyes in his and gave her a
smile that melted her inside.
    Oh God.
    Perhaps she could stay a little while. But
just a little while.
    "You weren't leaving were you?" He said in a
cocky voice.
    "No." Sherry looked over his body with
catlike appreciation. She felt like a woman in charge of her life
at that moment. A woman who finally knew what