“Three in the morning and you’re still awake, dumbass,” Mac laughed, careful to keep his voice low.
“Yeah, well, it’s been one of those weeks.” Jethro sounded disgusted.
“I thought you were on vacation. Started yesterday, didn’t it?”
“Vacation,” his friend snorted. “That’s a good word for suspension, I guess.”
“Hey, take the blow, take the vacation. At least it’s paid this time.” Jethro wasn’t known for his self-control when it came to ripping a ra**st off his victim, as he had done the month before.
“Yeah. It’s paid,” Jethro sighed. “So what has you calling at three in the morning? Other than rubbing salt in the wound here.”
Mac stared into the night, watching the shifting shadows in the forests around him before he spoke.
“Why not take a real vacation?” he finally asked. “Come to the farm for a while.”
Silence filled the line.
“Why?” Jethro’s voice was wary, but deeper. Interested.
“I need a third, Jethro. Keiley knows you. You’re familiar. I want you to be her first.” Her permanent third.
Jethro blinked at the blank wall across from him, not more than a little surprised. It had been more than three years since Mac had married Keiley Hardin. They had kept in touch by phone, but Jethro had never suspected what he heard in Mac’s voice now.
His friend was riding the edge of his sensuality. The restlessness and hunger were in his tone, and Jethro knew the hunger would be reflected in his eyes.
He knew because he was the same way. He could handle it for a while, doing without sharing a lover, but eventually it caught up on him.
It was catching up on Mac now.
“Anytime, you know that.” Jethro hoped the anticipation spilling through him now wasn’t spilling through the phone line.
Mac chuckled. “Still lusting after my wife, Jethro?” His voice was knowing.
“Hell, you know it,” Jethro breathed out roughly. “She’s one of the sexiest women either of us has ever seen, Mac. Any man would be panting for her.”
But only a few would be panting with the emotion to back it up as Jethro did. Not that he could ever reveal that to Mac.
“What does Keiley think about it?”
The silence came again.
“She doesn’t know,” Mac finally answered. “She suspects.”
“How do you intend to play this?”
“Your favorite sport, Jethro,” Mac drawled. “We’re going to seduce my wife.”
“And she’s seduceable?”
“She’s seduceable,” Mac admitted. “Whether or not she’s willing to forgive being seduced is another thing. We’ll take it a step at a time.”
A step at a time. His c**k was so hard he could feel the driving pain of arousal ricocheting up his spine. The thought of Keiley—sweet God, soft, sweet Keiley—the woman that had tormented him for over three years, sandwiched between him and Mac, would make him crazy before he ever made it to Mac’s hometown.
“Agreed.” Jethro stared around his apartment, instantly planning his trip from Virginia to North Carolina. “I’ll arrive tomorrow evening. Does she even know I’m coming?”
“She’ll know tomorrow.”
“But will she suspect why?”