“Very. We’re good friends, but we’re also lovers when the mood strikes us.”
A surge of jealousy rocked him so hard that he was surprised his body wasn’t convulsing.
“Say something,” she demanded.
“I don’t know what you want me to say. I’ve never been in a situation like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like my lover asking me to hang out with her other lover.”
“Jon and I are friends first.” Eden idly stroked the area around his nipple. “Don’t you have female friends you’ve slept with who are still your buddies? Who can fill that need for intimate physical contact once in a while, without strings?”
“No. Truth is, I don’t have a ton of friends of either gender. Been too damn busy or I’ve been on location.”
“Well, I think you’ll like Jon. He’s a great guy.”
Billy kissed her nose. “I hope so, since he’s my roommate.”
“What?”
“I’m assuming you’re talking about Jon White Feather, aka Johnny Feather, rock sensation?”
A stunned look crossed her face. “You know him?”
“No. Feather Light owns the condo I’m staying in and Jim White Feather warned me his little brother Jon would be crashing there. I saw his luggage today, but he wasn’t around so I haven’t met him yet.” He trailed his fingers across her collarbone. “And Jim had mentioned you and Jon hooking up whenever he rolled into town.”
“Jim just threw that out there in casual conversation?”
“No. I think he didn’t want me to be surprised if I saw you wearing Jon’s bathrobe or something at the condo.” He paused. “Jim doesn’t have a clue we knew each other before or that we…”
Eden sighed. “I know Spearfish is a small town and we know some of the same people, but this is just bizarre.”
“Tell me about it,” he muttered. What were the odds he’d be rooming with the only other person Eden had slept with in the last three years?
“So is that a no for tomorrow night?”
“It sounds like fun.”
“Good.” She yawned and snuggled into him. “Are you staying over?”
“Do you want me to?”
“I’d like that.”
Holding Eden all night? Definitely heaven. His arms tightened around her. “Me too.”
Chapter Twelve
The next evening Eden and Jon exited the dance floor and returned to the table where Billy waited. The night was going far better than Eden anticipated. Billy and Jon showed up together, acting like best buds. Apparently they’d spent the morning playing basketball and shooting the shit.
The cocktail waitress swung by and pressed her boobs in Jon’s face. “Need anything, darlin’?”
“Sure I’ll take another Coke. What about you guys?”
Billy and Eden shook their heads. After Miss Look At My Tits sashayed away, Eden asked Jon, “You ever get sick of all the female attention?”
Before he could answer, two rhinestone cowgirls approached and demanded a dance. After Jon politely declined, they focused their attention on Billy. When he also declined, they focused their venomous looks on Eden and stomped off.
The single women in this place were hostile. At first she chalked up their attitudes to the fact she, Billy and Jon weren’t regulars at the Silver Star. Then she decided the women were jealous because she was in the company of two great-looking young guys. But she also suspected the sneers and whispers were because she was an Indian woman with two gorgeous guys, one of whom was white.
Putting aside her paranoia, she refocused on the conversation.
“Too bad you’re only here temporarily,” Jon said. “I know Feather Light needed another full-time engineer before Bob’s heart attack.”
She listened while Billy launched into a detailed explanation of the other projects he’d been handling.
“The bottom line remains they are swamped. I’m doing what I can while I’m here.”
“Has Jim said anything to you about staying on permanently?”
Billy shrugged but wouldn’t meet Eden’s inquisitive gaze. “He’s hinted, but I think he’s waiting to see how my report on this initial assignment turns out.”
Eden swigged her beer and feigned interest in the neon bucking bull above the bar.
A warm hand pressed into the small of her back. Equally warm lips brushed her ear. “Dance with me.” Billy tugged her onto the dance floor, holding her against his body with a firm possessiveness that heated her blood.
They swayed together, lost in the rhythm of the music, secure in the synchronicity of their bodies. By the end of the third song, Eden needed a break from the intense feelings Billy aroused with just a simple touch.
She escaped to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall, attempting to regain control of her emotions. Was there a chance Billy would stick around? If so, where did that leave them? Would he be interested in pursuing a relationship?
The outer door slammed against the garbage can. An angry female voice whined, “He turned me down again. And that ugly Indian bitch wasn’t with him this time.”
Eden peeked out the crack in the stall door. The two pesky rhinestone cowgirls from earlier were primping in front of the mirror.
“Give it up, Jackie. So what if he’s gorgeous? You can ask him until you’re as red in the face as he is and he ain’t gonna say yes. Them Indians always stick together.”
Her stomach lurched. They were talking about her.
“But it don’t make sense the white guy with them said no.”
“Why are you surprised? She’s probably doin’ both of them.”
“What the fuck do they see in her? She ain’t pretty. Her clothes look like Salvation Army rejects. She’s probably always drunk, and dumb as tipi post.”
“So she’s another fuckin’ slutty Indian squaw. Why do you care?”
Eden felt sick and lowered herself to the toilet seat.
“Because they’re the best lookin’ guys in here tonight.”
“They’re not the only guys. You don’t wanna be with a white dude who sticks his dick in red meat anyway.”
The bimbos exited in a burst of braying laughter.
Eden cooled her heels until her temper waned, but nothing erased the embarrassment. A couple of cutting remarks and her hard-won confidence disappeared, allowing the pitiable little Indian girl who still lurked inside her to resurface. She slunk from the bathroom, keeping her eyes on the concrete floor until she reached the table.
Jon sat by himself. When he saw her, his smile died and he stood abruptly. “Eden? What’s wrong?”
“Where’s Billy?”
“Had to take a phone call from his boss in Chicago.” Jon cupped her face. “What happened?”
“Same shit, different day.” She tried to wriggle out of his hold. “Look. I can’t stand to be here. I’m leaving.”
“The hell you are. What happened to make you turn tail and run?”
“Nothing.” She cringed when the women passed by their table and Jon caught her reaction.
He swore softly. “What did they say to you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You know you’ll feel better if you talk to me.” He swept her hair over her shoulder. “You know I’ll understand.”
“I know. But not here. Please. Let me go.”
“Fine.” Jon’s gaze was laser sharp. “Come to the condo. We’ll talk there.”
“No. I just want to go home.”
“Not a chance. I’ll get Billy—”
Eden was near tears. But she’d be damned if she’d give those women the satisfaction. “Just drop it.”
“Drop what?” Billy’s hands squeezed her shoulders.
“She won’t tell me what happened, so let’s get out of this redneck dive and head back to the condo.” Jon’s thumbs stroked her hot cheeks. “You want Billy to drive your car?”
“I’m fine. I need some air. I’ll follow you.”
Eden nodded.
They released her and somehow she made it to her car without bawling.
Chapter Thirteen
Eden felt ridiculous, seated between the men on the small sofa in the condo, Jon holding one hand, Billy the other, as she told them what’d transpired in the bathroom.
In retrospect, she’d heard worse things, racial slurs barked directly in her face, so she didn’t know why she’d gotten so upset and worked up over it this time.
Billy demanded, “Does this bullshit happen often?”
“Yes,” she and Jon answered simultaneously.
Thick silence descended.
“Is that why it’s easier for you two…to be together?”
Eden looked at Billy oddly. “Indians always stick together?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Love doesn’t discriminate about varying skin colors, but everyone else does. Jim’s wife Cindy is white. They’ve been married for almost twenty years and they still get dirty looks and snide comments.”
“Same thing with Tate and Nathan LeBeau. She says it’s not just white people who are prejudiced. Some Indians claim that’s how the whites are conquering their race. By intermarrying and reproducing half-breeds.”
“Not like we can do anything about it, either,” Jon said. “We’re either a social experiment or socially shunned.”
“No one needs shit like that. Jesus. People are fucking idiots,” Billy muttered.
“It’s just another thing to deal with. We poor half-breeds hafta stick together, eh? Especially since our families can be the worst offenders.”
“Is that true for you?” Billy asked Eden.
She inhaled and released a long breath. “Yeah. I don’t know if you remember me telling you, but my mother got knocked up when she was drunk. She had no idea who my father was and resented me when I came out of the chute looking like an Indian. Or part Indian. Or whatever the hell I am.”
“Hey.” Jon grabbed her chin in his hand, turning her face to his. “What you are is beautiful.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
Billy cleared his throat and Eden’s head whipped back to him. But no censure darkened his eyes, just heat. He touched her face exactly as Jon had. “And sexy.” His mouth brushed hers and he expanded the kiss from Jon’s simple peck.
Two quick tugs on her hair had her facing Jon again. “And smart.” Jon licked the seam of her lips until she opened fully and he dove in for a slow tangling of tongues.
Jon’s kisses were more practiced than the raw hunger Billy’s mouth unleashed. Their tastes were different too—Jon’s was exotic, like cinnamon and sage. Billy’s was darker and sweeter, like red wine laced with honey. Both were delicious. Both were intoxicating. Both went to her head as fast as a shot of whiskey.
Jon released her mouth and Billy was back for more. “And you’re sweet, Eden. You are so damn…” The rest of his response was lost as he inhaled her in a kiss so blistering hot she wondered if her lips would bear scorch marks.
Her senses were overwhelmed. She didn’t want to analyze what was happening. She just wanted to exist in the moment. Eden closed her eyes, dropping her head back on the couch cushion when four male hands began caressing her. Her throat. Her breasts. Her thighs. Her body shuddered from their erotic attention.
“Eden? Baby, do you want this?”
“Want what?” she managed.
Billy’s breath tickled her ear. “Want both of us.”
“At the same time,” Jon said, his lips drifting down her neck.
Heat sparked inside her and she moaned.
“Is that a yes?”
She nodded.
“Say the words,” Billy insisted. “Tell us what you want so there won’t be any misunderstandings.”
Could she do this? Have two men at once? Two men not just kissing and petting her, but licking and sucking and expecting the same in return. Two sets of rough male hands touching her everywhere. Two mouths to kiss and bite and suck on her skin, on her sex. Two cocks demanding entrance to her body.
Was she a carbon copy of her mother if she admitted she wanted that sexy scenario as much as her next breath?
No. Billy and Jon weren’t some random guys looking for kicks from an easy lay, they were special to her. They’d treat this—and her—as a sexual experience to be celebrated not as just another kinky threesome. They both knew how to make her body weep with want and vibrate with pleasure. She’d be damned if her mother’s ghost would ruin something else for her.
“Baby?”
“Yes. I want both of you to fuck me. At the same time. One night of anything goes down and dirty wicked sex.”
“Good answer,” Billy murmured. “But make no mistake about who’s in charge. You will do whatever we say.”
Eden cracked her eyes open. “Have you guys been planning this all day?”
“No. But neither of us is about to let a golden opportunity pass us by, right Billy?”
“Damn straight.”
Jon stood and held a hand out. “Come on. Bedroom. Now.”
She gripped Billy’s hand and allowed Jon to lead them into a room at the end of the hallway.
A bout of nerves surfaced when she saw the bed.
“Relax,” Jon said. “Trust us to make you feel as beautiful as you are to us, Eden.” His head dipped and he captured her lips. He began to unbutton her blouse. As soon as it hit the carpet, another set of eager hands unhooked her bra and the scrap of lace disappeared.
Then Billy’s hot, hard male skin pressed up against her back. He swept her hair aside, nibbling from her left shoulder to her nape.
Her skin became a mass of goose bumps and she trembled.
Eden gasped when Jon tweaked her nipple. He slid his lips free from hers and replaced his fingers with his hungry mouth.
“Oh. God.”
“Do you know how fucking hot it is to watch him sucking on your tits?”
“Help him. I want to feel both your mouths on my breasts at the same time.”
Billy growled at her request and moved in front of her. He watched her face as his abrasive tongue lapped the pebbled tip. The same motion in the same spot. Over and over.
Jon mirrored Billy’s actions. Tiny flicks of a tongue. Suckling the point with pursed lips. Blowing a soft stream of air across the wetness. Drawing as much of her breast into the wet heat as possible, sucking long and deep and hard.
She’d never experienced anything so visually and physically arousing. Jon’s dark head on one side, Billy’s blond head on the other. The sensations of each hungry mouth focused solely on her nipple, the same, yet different.
The dual sharp nip of teeth made her cry out. A hot burst of moisture soaked her panties.
“Get her goddamn pants off,” Billy said.
Wicked Garden Page 9