Was it the look of innocence in her blue eyes? Possible.

That or it really was the chase.

He genuinely liked the fact that she'd looked right past him, strange as it sounded. Three times in one day, in fact. Although, again, he really didn't think she'd figured out that he was the same guy she'd seen that morning and again on the elevator. That he found interesting as well. Then again, maybe she didn't care.

He grabbed his laptop from the side table and flipped open the lid, leaving his coffee to sit untouched. He pulled up his web browser and typed in Mia's name. Maybe, just maybe, there was something he could find on her. Why, he didn't know, but he figured it was worth a shot.

Two seconds later, he slammed the lid closed.

No. He was not going to go there. If there was something to learn about her on the Internet, he didn't want to know. He'd had enough of those types. If she was worth getting to know, he was going to get to know her on a personal basis, no Internet involved.

Staring out at the Austin skyline as the orange and pink from the setting sun slowly settled into darkness, Phoenix realized he had a problem. This was not how he usually managed things. He didn't get a glimpse of a woman in an elevator and become some slobbering idiot who wanted to know more about her. That was fucking absurd.

Nor did he think about Tarik with that very same woman, both of them naked and writhing in the throes of an intense orgasm. Yet his mind had drifted there more than once that day, the mental images playing like a slide show through his head, one erotic scene after another. Now, as he imagined the two of them, Phoenix superimposed himself into those encounters. He could practically feel the hardwood biting into his knees as he knelt before Tarik, sucking his cock deep into his throat while Mia kissed Tarik, watching everything he was doing while Tarik fingered her pretty little pussy.

Son of a bitch.

Shaking off the thought, Phoenix focused on the buildings outside the window.

What the fuck was he doing? He was supposed to be thinking about Mia. Only Mia. Not entertaining thoughts of threesomes or ... or pleasuring Tarik. He'd never fixated on interactions with men before. Well, nothing more than a couple of hand jobs and some rather exquisite blow jobs during a time in his life when he'd been trying to identify some of those lingering desires. Sure, he might've sated some curiosity, and maybe he'd gotten off to gay porn a time or two, but that didn't mean... He wasn't...

Fuck.

He was. He so was.

Tossing the laptop onto the cushion beside him, he grabbed his cell phone. Pulling up his contact list, Phoenix held his finger over the button that would dial the number, one of the few numbers he had that weren't business related. It would take the push of a button, and Phoenix would prove that he preferred women over men any day. He enjoyed women.

Damn it.

He hesitated, staring down at the phone.

"Son of a motherfucking bitch," he growled, backing out of the screen and tossing his phone on the cushion beside his laptop.

Calling any woman other than Mia - which wasn't even a possibility because he didn't have her phone number - wasn't going to do a damn thing to curb the ache that had taken up residence in his balls since that brief run-in that morning. Even if a woman came over and gave him exactly what he needed, he would still go to bed longing for something he couldn't have. And what fucking good would that do him?

An hour of mindless sex with a woman who didn't want anything from him wasn't going to help. It never had before. Even if his dick thought otherwise.

But he needed to do something. Whatever he had to do in order to stop thinking about the woman who'd been on his mind for no other reason than she had captured his interest that morning in an elevator.

Fuck.

Mindlessly, he stared out the window and slid his hand down into his shorts, gripping the steely length of his erection, stroking ever so slowly. His mind drifted back to Mia, to the way she'd looked that morning when she had stepped off the elevator. Those tight jeans that hugged a perfect little heart-shaped ass, the trim legs that would feel like heaven wrapped around his hips while he thrust into her.

Jerking his cock more firmly, Phoenix let his head drop back against the cushions, closing his eyes and imagining those soft pink lips wrapped around the head of his dick while he fucked her mouth, his fingers twining into the silky strands of her blonde hair.

The fantasy morphed into something far more erotic, and Phoenix imagined Tarik behind him, driving his thick cock deep into Phoenix's ass while Mia continued to suck him, her sweet lips caressing the head of his dick.

Oh, God.

THE FIRST THING Tarik noticed when he walked into the darkened penthouse was that Phoenix was home. He could see the back of his head as he sat on the couch facing the wall of windows and the illuminated Austin skyline beyond.

Closing the door as quietly as he could, Tarik moved closer. He had come to give Phoenix shit about the blonde woman and then see if he wanted to grab dinner, but he was pulled up short when he heard Phoenix speak.

"Oh, fuck yes," Phoenix said breathlessly.

Tarik narrowed his eyes, moving closer still, trying to see if someone else was there. That was when he realized Phoenix was jacking off on the couch, no one else in the room. That was new. Tarik's dick stood up and took notice immediately, and he was tempted to pull out his cock and stroke it along with Phoenix, but he managed to refrain, mesmerized by the sounds coming from the couch, the soft moans, the low growls.

"Fuck. Oh, yeah. That's good." Phoenix groaned, jacking his cock harder, faster, his head leaned back against the sofa cushions, eyes closed. "Tarik. Mia. Oh, fuck."

Tarik nearly swallowed his own damn tongue when he heard Phoenix say his name. It didn't surprise him that Phoenix had called out for Mia. He was fixated on the pretty little blonde for whatever reason. But for Phoenix to say his name... Did that mean...?

Phoenix groaned, followed by, "Oh, fuck. I'm gonna come. Take all of me."

Tarik wished like hell he knew what fantasy was playing out in Phoenix's head right then. Was he thinking about Tarik positioned between his legs, sucking his dick? Or was he thinking about Mia riding his hard cock while Tarik fucked her ass?

It didn't matter. Whatever Phoenix was thinking about included him.

"Coming," Phoenix moaned, his arm stilling, his head rolling side to side on the couch cushion.

Not wanting to interrupt or to let Phoenix know that he'd been watching, Tarik slipped back down the hall to the front door. He exited silently and then headed for the stairs.

Once inside his own condo, Tarik maneuvered through the darkened living room, and without an ounce of finesse, he yanked open his pants, shoving them to his thighs as he plopped onto his couch and took his dick in his hand. Closing his eyes, he pictured Phoenix on his knees, his sweet lips wrapped around the head of his cock, sucking him hard and fast while Mia straddled Tarik's face. He wanted to taste her, to lick her pussy until she was screaming and begging for more.

He had no idea why he'd become infatuated with her after only seeing her once in the elevator, but he had. Maybe it was the idea of Phoenix wanting her; maybe she had some sort of voodoo. Shit, he didn't fucking know, but he couldn't stop thinking about her any more than Phoenix could.

Tarik stroked himself faster, cupping his balls with his free hand, fondling them aggressively while he jacked himself. He didn't stop until the pleasure accosted him and the only thing he could do was come in his fucking hand.

And as he'd suspected, when he opened his eyes, bringing himself back to reality slowly, Tarik was left with an even stronger desire and a still-hard dick.

But at least one good thing had come from tonight... Tarik now knew that Phoenix did think about him. No matter what he wanted Tarik to believe.

Chapter Six.

"I STILL CAN'T believe you cooked that all by yourself," Mia teased Alex as she helped to remove the dishes from the table.

Alex's husband, Johnathan, shot Mia a knowing look. One that said he had given his wife a hand with the fantastic meal they'd recently devoured.

"Never doubt my abilities," Alex replied readily. "Now, shoo," she told Johnathan. "You've got a game to watch. We'll take care of the dishes."

Johnathan planted a quick kiss on Alex's lips before heading back to the room he'd been in when Mia had arrived a good half hour before.

"Did he just leave the other guys in there while he ate dinner?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "They're used to it. I've offered to cook for them before, but they refuse every time. So I quit asking."

"I guess the game's more important?" Mia carried the last of the plates to the sink, where Alex had flipped on the water and was rinsing the dishes.

"Of course. I think my husband would bypass dinner if he didn't think I'd be upset with him."

"Would you?" Mia asked.

"No. But don't tell him I said that. I like having dinner with him."

Mia laughed as she opened the dishwasher and began loading dishes.

The only thing Mia had walked away with from her divorce from Damien, other than the three mil and her personal effects in one single suitcase, was her friendship with Alexandra Henry, better known as Alex. She had met Alex after Mia and Damien were married. Mia had been attending a charity event, bored out of her skull, when Damien had left her sitting at a table alone so he could converse with everyone else in the room. Everyone but her. Alex had joined Mia at the table, and they'd hit it off with shots of Patron. Alex's idea. They'd forged a solid friendship, and over the next few months, and the years that followed, they had become best friends. Alex had even stuck with her during the divorce, proving that their friendship wasn't based on her marriage to Damien. Mia was grateful to Alex for that. At this point in her life, she certainly needed a friend.

Until the last four or five months, they'd usually managed to get together at least once a week for girls' night. Since school had started, Mia had found herself busier than usual between that and trying to keep her mother convinced that she was doing fine now that she was single and living on her own. Not that Clarice believed her, but Mia certainly tried her best to assure her.

Mia missed spending time with Alex, though, even when that time consisted of drinking wine on the living room sofa while men acted like teenage boys in the room beyond.

"His love for hockey really is his only flaw," Alex stated with a giggle as Mia glanced over her shoulder toward the room where Johnathan and a few of his friends had locked themselves in order to watch tonight's Austin Arrows game.

Mia knew absolutely nothing about hockey. Nor did she even care for it. That was probably due to Damien's complete and utter fixation on the sport for the last year. Ever since he'd gotten it in his head that he needed to own a hockey team, one of his many obsessions, things had started to go downhill.

"I hope for your sake that they win tonight," Mia said as a round of boos erupted from the back room. Closing the dishwasher, Mia grabbed a hand towel and wiped her hands.

"Me, too. Things get rather interesting when they win."

Mia didn't need Alex to elaborate to know what she was referring to. It was no secret that Mia's best friend had a very exciting sex life. It wasn't something they had in common, because, of course, Mia had been married to Damien. Not that she knew what interesting sex should be like per se, but she got the sneaking suspicion that it was more than she'd ever experienced with her ex-husband.

"I don't even want to know what that means," Mia said, laughing as she headed into the living room.

"Of course you do," Alex teased. "Sit. I'll be right back."

Mia made herself comfortable on the plush, chocolate-suede sectional that sectioned off the formal living area from the rest of Alex's exquisitely detailed house. Maybe mansion would be a better description. The house was two stories, ten bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, and if she recalled correctly, somewhere around twelve thousand square feet. It was ginormous, even more so considering Alex and Johnathan were the only two who lived there aside from Kevin, their live-in house butler.

Alex returned a minute later with two glasses. She set them on the table, flipped on two of the lamps at the ends of the sofa before disappearing again. Mia watched her friend as she moved about.

"I'm so glad you're here," Alex stated when she returned with a bottle of wine, patting Mia's hand before dropping onto the sofa and pouring two glasses and handing Mia one.

Mia took a sip, her eyes following Alex as she once again jumped up and headed toward the kitchen.

"Where're you going?" Mia asked, not bothering to get up and follow her friend. She was too comfortable where she was, and knowing Alex, she wouldn't settle down for at least another five minutes.

"I forgot something. Don't move."

"Don't worry, I won't."

An eruption of shouts and clapping echoed from the back room, and Mia glanced over her shoulder toward the closed double doors in time to see one of them swing open as Johnathan stepped into view. "Where's Alex?"

Mia pointed toward the kitchen as she watched him stalk across the room. He looked so unlike the man she was used to seeing. Although scrubs were a suitable outfit for him, she was used to seeing him dressed in slacks and a tailored shirt that Alex usually picked out for him. Today he was wearing an Austin Arrows sweatshirt and jeans, a baseball cap on backward, making him look a decade younger than he actually was.

"Hey. Who's winning?" she asked.

"The Arrows," he said excitedly as he passed through the living room. "They're on fire this season."

Nodding her head as though she actually knew why that was, Mia watched Johnathan disappear into the kitchen. A second later, Alex returned, laughing as she ran toward Mia.

"That man is insatiable," Alex declared as she retrieved her glass from the table and flopped back down onto the sofa at the opposite end from where Mia was sitting. "So, tell me, how's school?"

"Good," Mia told her friend. "This is the first full week back since winter break, so it's like starting all over again. I don't know what to do with the extra time I have right now."

"Maybe you should relax a little. You've been going nonstop for months now. You deserve a little break. Speaking of break, how was the Colorado trip?"

Alex was referring to Mia's Christmas vacation with her mother, something they'd started a couple of years after her father had died. It was a way for the two of them to get away and spend time together without normal life intruding. "It was ... interesting."

"Uh-oh. What does that mean?"

Mia sipped her wine and then considered her next words carefully. "I think my mother is seeing someone."

Alex's perfectly plucked, dark eyebrows shot skyward, and a huge smile broke across her face. "Really? Is it serious?"

"I don't know. I think she's scared to tell me."

"Did you ask her?"

"Sort of," Mia explained. "I was trying to be nonchalant about it. I don't think she got the hint. That or she didn't want to talk about him."

"What makes you think so?"

"She spent a significant amount of time texting on her phone. And I could tell it wasn't work-related because she was usually smiling like a schoolgirl."

"Are you happy for her?" Alex asked.

Mia heard the concern in her friend's tone. "I am," she said, nodding. "My father died when I was ten, and my mother's been alone since then. I think she deserves to find love again."

Neither of them said anything for a moment. Mia sipped her wine, thinking about how happy her mother had been during their vacation. They'd spent time at a ski lodge, neither of them doing any skiing, but they'd had a good time, anyway. She looked forward to that trip every year, and now she had to wonder whether or not her mother would be inviting someone else to go with them. Even while Mia had been married to Damien, she had gone with her mother each year. Alone. He had refused to go with her, claiming he couldn't be away from things for an entire week. It had been a weak excuse, but Mia had never pushed him.

As though reading where her thoughts had gone, Alex asked, "Have you heard from Damien?" Her expression was guarded, as though she knew Mia didn't want to talk about him, but felt the need to inquire anyway.

"Not a single word," Mia said. "Thank God."

"I'm glad."

"How about you?" Mia asked, glancing toward the kitchen to where Johnathan had yet to return from.

"No. Doesn't surprise me, though. Johnathan never was a big fan of Damien's."