Author: Roni Loren
Jace touched her gently then positioned himself at her back entrance, pressing the tip of his cock against her. “Focus on letting me in, baby. Relax your muscles and push against me.”
Andre’s fingers didn’t stop their ministrations, and she held on to that sensation as she followed Jace’s instruction. Her body resisted the invasion, making it feel like there was no way she could ever take him, but she wasn’t going to give up that easily. She took another deep breath and focused on relaxing, on accepting him. The first thrust felt like she was going to rip apart, but then he pushed past the ring of muscle and all went white behind her eyes.
“Oh, God . . .” Her body turned as taut as a guitar string and every shred of her being seemed to jerk to hyper-awareness. Pleasure wasn’t even a fair word for it.
Jace hissed out a breath as he pulled back and eased into her again. “Oh, Evan, baby.”
His words stopped making sense and so did her thoughts. Andre’s thumb took over her clit, and his fingers plunged deep inside her, stroking her as Jace continued rocking into her.
She felt . . . invaded. In the best possible way. Invaded and utterly dominated by the two of them. Her pleasure was no longer in her conscious control. Her arms began to quiver, and sweat trickled down her neck. Breath started to come in short fits and starts. She felt alive and electric and half out of her mind. The feel of both of them inside her something she’d never forget. “I don’t . . . know . . . how much . . . longer . . .”
“Shh,” Andre soothed. “You both have permission to come. Let it take you, bella. Let me watch both of you fall apart above me.”
With his free hand, Andre yanked off her blindfold and she found his eyes full of stark desire and something else, something far more intense.
Jace’s own breathing became erratic, and his tempo went from canter to gallop. “Come for me, Evan. Come for both of us.”
Andre’s eyes stayed locked with hers as he stroked her clit with increasing pressure. Then his fingers curved inside her, hitting the spot that she’d thought was a myth, and the world around her exploded.
A wretched cry tore out of her, and she thrust against Jace in a mindless frenzy, her entire body seeming to contract around him. She was no longer in control of her muscles—her body was taking what it wanted, pushing her higher and higher into a place she hadn’t been before. She was floating. No pain or worry. Just thoughtless bliss.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard Jace’s own moan of ecstasy, felt his heat spill against the condom and the resulting softening of his grip on her waist.
Andre grabbed her quivering arms, and she collapsed against him in a boneless heap. Her mind couldn’t process anything—emotion, ecstasy, pain—all of it wrapped around her in an overwhelming rush.
Then, she lost it.
Tears—something she hadn’t felt against her cheeks in a decade—sprung forth without warning or control. She didn’t even realize what was happening until she found herself sobbing against Andre’s sweat-slicked chest.
“Oh, bella.” His hand caressed her hair. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
The bed dipped and Jace grabbed her hand, running a thumb over her palm. “Are you all right, Ev? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head against Andre, the sobs continuing to wrack her like she was some delirious lunatic.
Jace kissed her knuckles. “It’s okay, just let it out, sweetheart. This can happen sometimes.”
Andre rolled to his side, taking her with him, and Jace stretched out along her back, spooning her. With soft caresses and soothing words, both men held on to her, letting her go through whatever craziness had taken her body and mind hostage until she didn’t know which was more frightening—that she was crying for the first time in years or that she was happy.
SEVENTEEN
Jace sank onto the couch across from Andre. “She’s sleeping.”
Andre was sitting forward on the loveseat, his elbows on his knees, fingers steepled. He nodded, though he looked lost in thought. “That’s good.”
Jace ran a hand through his towel-dried hair. The shower hadn’t cleared his mind like he’d hoped. It’d only left him more worried. And Andre looked to be on the same mental path as he was. “Seemed like more than just a reaction to subspace, didn’t it?”
Andre sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve seen people get emotional afterward, but it felt like more. Yes.”
Well, wasn’t that always the theme with Evan? Everything always felt like more. More intense. More important. More special. He glanced at Andre, debating whether or not he should share what he knew about Evan. Share the fear that wouldn’t stop tapping at the back of his brain. If they were going to continue doing this with her, Andre needed to know.
Jace blew out a breath. “She used to have emotional problems . . . as a teenager. Maybe something like this is too much for her to handle.”
Andre’s gaze lifted. “What kind of problems?”
Jace held his stare. “The night I slept with her, I found healing scars on her stomach. Some old, some new. Deep cuts. All in a perfect alignment.”
Andre winced. “Christ.”
Jace sank against the couch cushions, the weight of the memory making him feel tired. “I was so freaked for her when I figured out what she was doing, and then I was so fucking pissed at myself for falling into bed with her. We were close then and I should’ve seen that she needed help, that she was lost. But I was too damn preoccupied with how much I wanted her to realize anything was wrong. Dude, she told me she loved me that night, and I fucked it up completely.”
Andre rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s heavy stuff to process, especially at nineteen.”
“We had this perfect night in bed. The lights had gone out from a summer storm, and the whole evening seemed to bring us to some other world where reality didn’t exist. But while we were lying there afterward, the electricity came back on, and I saw her scars. I panicked and backpedaled like a damn coward. Told her that I should’ve never touched her, that I had drunk too much and made a mistake, that she needed to tell my mom what she was doing or I was going to say something for her.” He tilted his head back and stared at the wood-beamed ceiling. “Then my parents came home unexpectedly and found us together, still half-naked. My dad kicked me out of the house for good that night and told me he would report me for statutory rape. Evan disappeared before brunch hit the table the following morning.”
“God, man. No wonder you were relieved to see that Evan was okay. It had to be brutal not knowing where she was or if she was all right.”
“You have no idea.” Jace had spent months not sleeping, always carrying around the knowledge that wherever Evan was, it was his fault. His parents had asked him to look out for Evan when she’d come to live with them, and he’d been determined to show his father that he could be more than the family screw-up. He’d befriended Evan, gained her trust, had made her feel safe in a new place. Then after all of that, he’d still gone and proven his father right. He’d fallen for a girl he didn’t have any right to, one who needed a friend not a lover.
“Did your dad actually turn you in?”
He sniffed. “Of course he did. Bill Austin doesn’t make idle threats. But I denied it and they couldn’t find Evan, so I was never charged.”
“She saved you by leaving.”
Jace lifted his head. “Yeah, talk about guilt. But jail probably would’ve been better than the nightmares I conjured up wondering what had happened to her.”
“She hasn’t told you anything since she’s been here?”
“No. We agreed to no past. I’m not sure I want to know.” His cell phone vibrated from the spot where he’d left it on the dining room table. He ignored it. “She seems like she’s got it together now, but there are shadows behind her eyes. And after the breakdown she had in there, I’m not sure what to think.”
“She was exorcising something. I don’t think it was a bad thing.” Andre propped his feet on the coffee table. “But I can tell you one thing for sure: If Dr. Dan is vanilla, Evan is signing up for a life of frustration. I’ve never seen someone as green as she is take to the sub role so well. Vanilla is not going to satisfy her.”
“Don’t give me another reason to want Dr. Dan out of the picture.” Jace stood and paced to the window at the front of the cabin. “You’re supposed to be the one reminding me why I shouldn’t try to shoulder in on another guy’s woman. Especially a guy who’s about to give Wicked a much needed injection of cash flow.”
“Watching me with her didn’t break the hold she has on you?” Andre asked, his words measured.
Jace closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the window. He’d gone into that bedroom anticipating that seeing Evan with someone else would solve his problem. But it had only made it worse. Seeing her give herself over to the two of them, even watching Andre dominate her had gotten to him in a way that ménage never did. He tapped his head against the glass. “It only made me want her more.”
The couch squeaked as Andre shifted, and Jace vaguely registered the sound of his cell phone buzzing again. “And having me there, too?”
“Felt right.”
Andre released a breath. “So I guess that leaves us with two options.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. We be smart and walk away now. Save us both the risk of getting attached and then getting our guts handed to us when she walks away.”
Jace groaned and turned around. He was already knee-deep in attachment. “Or?”
Andre leaned forward, his expression weary. “Or both of us spend the next two months showing her what she’s going to be missing if she goes through with the marriage. Give her a chance to make that decision with her eyes wide open. And accept that we’ll probably be sending her a goddamned blender as a wedding gift at the end of the process anyway.”
Well, didn’t each of those options sound like a frolic in the fucking flowers. Kick in the face now or kick in the balls later? Whichever path he chose, Jace knew Evan would leave at the end of it. It’s not like he and Andre could offer her anything permanent even if she decided to renege on her engagement. There was no happily ever after waiting for her here. But at least in the second plan he’d have the chance to touch her again and maybe he could save her from making the marriage mistake like he had.
“I don’t think I can let her go yet,” Jace admitted, the heft of that knowledge like sandbags on his shoulders.
Andre raked his hands through his hair, weariness clear on his face. “That makes two of us then. Aren’t we a couple of masochistic assholes?”
Jace walked over to the couch and perched on the arm of it. “She may not even agree to it. You saw how she reacted when things got too intimate. Maybe this is only a one-weekend, get-the-kink-out deal for her.”
Andre snorted. “That’s like saying a person can cure themselves of being straight or gay. We know she’s submissive. So we need to show her how nice it can be to fully embrace that.”
The plan was starting to take shape in Jace’s head, sounding more tempting as Andre kept talking. But he knew without parameters, they could all end up in a disastrous tangle at the end—hurt feelings, possessiveness, jealousy, guilt. He’d damaged Evan enough the first time around and didn’t want to set her up for more pain. And hell, he needed to keep his own expectations in check. This weekend had proven that Evan could get through the cracks of what he thought was impenetrable armor. They all needed a parachute cord—fine print at the bottom of their agreement—that would allow them to go in with the end in mind.
Jace shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at his closed bedroom door, picturing how content and beautiful Evan had looked when he’d left the room. “At the end of the two months, all of us walk away, no questions asked, no obligation.”
Jace touched her gently then positioned himself at her back entrance, pressing the tip of his cock against her. “Focus on letting me in, baby. Relax your muscles and push against me.”
Andre’s fingers didn’t stop their ministrations, and she held on to that sensation as she followed Jace’s instruction. Her body resisted the invasion, making it feel like there was no way she could ever take him, but she wasn’t going to give up that easily. She took another deep breath and focused on relaxing, on accepting him. The first thrust felt like she was going to rip apart, but then he pushed past the ring of muscle and all went white behind her eyes.
“Oh, God . . .” Her body turned as taut as a guitar string and every shred of her being seemed to jerk to hyper-awareness. Pleasure wasn’t even a fair word for it.
Jace hissed out a breath as he pulled back and eased into her again. “Oh, Evan, baby.”
His words stopped making sense and so did her thoughts. Andre’s thumb took over her clit, and his fingers plunged deep inside her, stroking her as Jace continued rocking into her.
She felt . . . invaded. In the best possible way. Invaded and utterly dominated by the two of them. Her pleasure was no longer in her conscious control. Her arms began to quiver, and sweat trickled down her neck. Breath started to come in short fits and starts. She felt alive and electric and half out of her mind. The feel of both of them inside her something she’d never forget. “I don’t . . . know . . . how much . . . longer . . .”
“Shh,” Andre soothed. “You both have permission to come. Let it take you, bella. Let me watch both of you fall apart above me.”
With his free hand, Andre yanked off her blindfold and she found his eyes full of stark desire and something else, something far more intense.
Jace’s own breathing became erratic, and his tempo went from canter to gallop. “Come for me, Evan. Come for both of us.”
Andre’s eyes stayed locked with hers as he stroked her clit with increasing pressure. Then his fingers curved inside her, hitting the spot that she’d thought was a myth, and the world around her exploded.
A wretched cry tore out of her, and she thrust against Jace in a mindless frenzy, her entire body seeming to contract around him. She was no longer in control of her muscles—her body was taking what it wanted, pushing her higher and higher into a place she hadn’t been before. She was floating. No pain or worry. Just thoughtless bliss.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard Jace’s own moan of ecstasy, felt his heat spill against the condom and the resulting softening of his grip on her waist.
Andre grabbed her quivering arms, and she collapsed against him in a boneless heap. Her mind couldn’t process anything—emotion, ecstasy, pain—all of it wrapped around her in an overwhelming rush.
Then, she lost it.
Tears—something she hadn’t felt against her cheeks in a decade—sprung forth without warning or control. She didn’t even realize what was happening until she found herself sobbing against Andre’s sweat-slicked chest.
“Oh, bella.” His hand caressed her hair. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
The bed dipped and Jace grabbed her hand, running a thumb over her palm. “Are you all right, Ev? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head against Andre, the sobs continuing to wrack her like she was some delirious lunatic.
Jace kissed her knuckles. “It’s okay, just let it out, sweetheart. This can happen sometimes.”
Andre rolled to his side, taking her with him, and Jace stretched out along her back, spooning her. With soft caresses and soothing words, both men held on to her, letting her go through whatever craziness had taken her body and mind hostage until she didn’t know which was more frightening—that she was crying for the first time in years or that she was happy.
SEVENTEEN
Jace sank onto the couch across from Andre. “She’s sleeping.”
Andre was sitting forward on the loveseat, his elbows on his knees, fingers steepled. He nodded, though he looked lost in thought. “That’s good.”
Jace ran a hand through his towel-dried hair. The shower hadn’t cleared his mind like he’d hoped. It’d only left him more worried. And Andre looked to be on the same mental path as he was. “Seemed like more than just a reaction to subspace, didn’t it?”
Andre sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve seen people get emotional afterward, but it felt like more. Yes.”
Well, wasn’t that always the theme with Evan? Everything always felt like more. More intense. More important. More special. He glanced at Andre, debating whether or not he should share what he knew about Evan. Share the fear that wouldn’t stop tapping at the back of his brain. If they were going to continue doing this with her, Andre needed to know.
Jace blew out a breath. “She used to have emotional problems . . . as a teenager. Maybe something like this is too much for her to handle.”
Andre’s gaze lifted. “What kind of problems?”
Jace held his stare. “The night I slept with her, I found healing scars on her stomach. Some old, some new. Deep cuts. All in a perfect alignment.”
Andre winced. “Christ.”
Jace sank against the couch cushions, the weight of the memory making him feel tired. “I was so freaked for her when I figured out what she was doing, and then I was so fucking pissed at myself for falling into bed with her. We were close then and I should’ve seen that she needed help, that she was lost. But I was too damn preoccupied with how much I wanted her to realize anything was wrong. Dude, she told me she loved me that night, and I fucked it up completely.”
Andre rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s heavy stuff to process, especially at nineteen.”
“We had this perfect night in bed. The lights had gone out from a summer storm, and the whole evening seemed to bring us to some other world where reality didn’t exist. But while we were lying there afterward, the electricity came back on, and I saw her scars. I panicked and backpedaled like a damn coward. Told her that I should’ve never touched her, that I had drunk too much and made a mistake, that she needed to tell my mom what she was doing or I was going to say something for her.” He tilted his head back and stared at the wood-beamed ceiling. “Then my parents came home unexpectedly and found us together, still half-naked. My dad kicked me out of the house for good that night and told me he would report me for statutory rape. Evan disappeared before brunch hit the table the following morning.”
“God, man. No wonder you were relieved to see that Evan was okay. It had to be brutal not knowing where she was or if she was all right.”
“You have no idea.” Jace had spent months not sleeping, always carrying around the knowledge that wherever Evan was, it was his fault. His parents had asked him to look out for Evan when she’d come to live with them, and he’d been determined to show his father that he could be more than the family screw-up. He’d befriended Evan, gained her trust, had made her feel safe in a new place. Then after all of that, he’d still gone and proven his father right. He’d fallen for a girl he didn’t have any right to, one who needed a friend not a lover.
“Did your dad actually turn you in?”
He sniffed. “Of course he did. Bill Austin doesn’t make idle threats. But I denied it and they couldn’t find Evan, so I was never charged.”
“She saved you by leaving.”
Jace lifted his head. “Yeah, talk about guilt. But jail probably would’ve been better than the nightmares I conjured up wondering what had happened to her.”
“She hasn’t told you anything since she’s been here?”
“No. We agreed to no past. I’m not sure I want to know.” His cell phone vibrated from the spot where he’d left it on the dining room table. He ignored it. “She seems like she’s got it together now, but there are shadows behind her eyes. And after the breakdown she had in there, I’m not sure what to think.”
“She was exorcising something. I don’t think it was a bad thing.” Andre propped his feet on the coffee table. “But I can tell you one thing for sure: If Dr. Dan is vanilla, Evan is signing up for a life of frustration. I’ve never seen someone as green as she is take to the sub role so well. Vanilla is not going to satisfy her.”
“Don’t give me another reason to want Dr. Dan out of the picture.” Jace stood and paced to the window at the front of the cabin. “You’re supposed to be the one reminding me why I shouldn’t try to shoulder in on another guy’s woman. Especially a guy who’s about to give Wicked a much needed injection of cash flow.”
“Watching me with her didn’t break the hold she has on you?” Andre asked, his words measured.
Jace closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the window. He’d gone into that bedroom anticipating that seeing Evan with someone else would solve his problem. But it had only made it worse. Seeing her give herself over to the two of them, even watching Andre dominate her had gotten to him in a way that ménage never did. He tapped his head against the glass. “It only made me want her more.”
The couch squeaked as Andre shifted, and Jace vaguely registered the sound of his cell phone buzzing again. “And having me there, too?”
“Felt right.”
Andre released a breath. “So I guess that leaves us with two options.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. We be smart and walk away now. Save us both the risk of getting attached and then getting our guts handed to us when she walks away.”
Jace groaned and turned around. He was already knee-deep in attachment. “Or?”
Andre leaned forward, his expression weary. “Or both of us spend the next two months showing her what she’s going to be missing if she goes through with the marriage. Give her a chance to make that decision with her eyes wide open. And accept that we’ll probably be sending her a goddamned blender as a wedding gift at the end of the process anyway.”
Well, didn’t each of those options sound like a frolic in the fucking flowers. Kick in the face now or kick in the balls later? Whichever path he chose, Jace knew Evan would leave at the end of it. It’s not like he and Andre could offer her anything permanent even if she decided to renege on her engagement. There was no happily ever after waiting for her here. But at least in the second plan he’d have the chance to touch her again and maybe he could save her from making the marriage mistake like he had.
“I don’t think I can let her go yet,” Jace admitted, the heft of that knowledge like sandbags on his shoulders.
Andre raked his hands through his hair, weariness clear on his face. “That makes two of us then. Aren’t we a couple of masochistic assholes?”
Jace walked over to the couch and perched on the arm of it. “She may not even agree to it. You saw how she reacted when things got too intimate. Maybe this is only a one-weekend, get-the-kink-out deal for her.”
Andre snorted. “That’s like saying a person can cure themselves of being straight or gay. We know she’s submissive. So we need to show her how nice it can be to fully embrace that.”
The plan was starting to take shape in Jace’s head, sounding more tempting as Andre kept talking. But he knew without parameters, they could all end up in a disastrous tangle at the end—hurt feelings, possessiveness, jealousy, guilt. He’d damaged Evan enough the first time around and didn’t want to set her up for more pain. And hell, he needed to keep his own expectations in check. This weekend had proven that Evan could get through the cracks of what he thought was impenetrable armor. They all needed a parachute cord—fine print at the bottom of their agreement—that would allow them to go in with the end in mind.
Jace shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at his closed bedroom door, picturing how content and beautiful Evan had looked when he’d left the room. “At the end of the two months, all of us walk away, no questions asked, no obligation.”
