Whatever the Cost by Lynn Kelling Page A

jelly.
    The door swings open and the butler gestures for him to enter. It’s a large room with dark, fabric-covered walls, some of it hanging in elegant drapes from the ceiling, framing a huge bed with crimson silk sheets. The light is more substantial than Liam would like, atmospheric with candles, but recessed overheads and a few sconces brighten the space considerably.
    Liam becomes his character, rubbing the back of his neck, lowering his eyes, flushing pink. Jacen is standing with the woman, who must be Claudia, his long fingers dancing over her fair skin and her pink silk negligee. Focused entirely on her, her cupid’s bow-shaped lips when she giggles, the long sweeping line of her neck, the soft swell of her ample cleavage, Jacen presses close to her, one arm circled around her back, his hand resting at the small of her back, hunching forward ever so slightly so that his lips are in kissing distance. Jacen is barefoot and shirtless, wearing only a pair of worn-soft jeans that Liam has laundered for him countless times.
    Sweet Jesus, he’s gorgeous
, Liam moans inwardly. Jacen is sex—his suntanned skin, oiled muscles bulging, veins popping, hair twisted back at the nape of his neck in a leather tie but a few tendrils slipping free, and curling around his face. Liam can’t stop staring at the ridges of his friend’s washboard abdominal muscles, his small, dark nipples, the perfection of Jacen’s belly button, the cut of his hips descending in a V under the jeans, pointing toward his groin.
    Claudia appears to be about forty years old, with long strawberry blond hair and a round, doll-like face. Wearing her age well, in amazing physical shape, with creamy skin, her eyes sparkling with her laughter, she quickly puts Liam at ease with only a smile.
    “William. Come in. Welcome,” she purrs. “Jacen, look at him. He’s beautiful. This is going to be fantastic, I know it. Now, you’ll be nice to him, won’t you? Look how bashful he’s being. We mustn’t scare him off.”
    She leaves Jacen and glides over to Liam instead, slipping a small, delicate hand inside his and guiding him to be closer to the bed. It takes only a few steps and then she’s kissing his cheek, soft as a butterfly’s touch.
    “Don’t be scared. We won’t bite. Much.”
    “Okay,” he murmurs, catching his lower lip between the points of his teeth.
    “Is this your first time?”
    There’s a hopeful note to the question, so, with a quick glance to Jacen’s towering form a few feet away, Liam ducks his head and answers, “Maybe, ma’am. Depends what you’re asking, I guess.”
    “Call me Claudia. Please.” Liam gives her a vulnerable, shy grin and holds her hand a little tighter. “What I would
love
, William, is to introduce you to my good friend Jacen. Would that be okay? He’s a big teddy bear, I promise, don’t let the hard body fool you.”
    “Yeah, that’s okay,” he says with another nervous glance to his intended. Jacen is staring right at him, like he’s seeing Liam for the first time, like he’s absolutely starving for him. There’s a wicked, heady, naked lust in his cool blue eyes as they grope over Liam’s form, one that Liam’s never quite been at the receiving end of before, not even when he was Leah, not in all the many times they rehearsed in the downstairs of their home.
    Stomach swooping, breath catching, Liam turns his attention back to Claudia when she asks, “William, have you ever been with a man before?”
    “B-been with—” After a sharp exhale, his blood rushing under his skin, roaring in his ears, making him dizzy, he sees from the corner of his eye as Jacen makes his way over.
    “Guess I have my answer,” she smiles wickedly, completely enthralled.
    “Hi, William,” Jacen says, his hands slipping easily around Liam, one around his waist, the other around the junction of his neck and shoulder. Never before in all of the thousands of times that Jacen has said Liam’s name has it ever