Alexa's Web [Mastering Holly Oaks 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Rayna Stone

  Now, to comfort Ryan. He was too tired to contemplate a long and involved scene. He was Ryan’s Dom, but they didn’t really take it out of the bedroom. Despite what others sometimes thought, James was a very relaxed kind of Dom, and Ryan wasn’t a very submissive person, so they kept their kink reserved for sexual situations, and James liked to make the most of that. Except, tonight, he was just too exhausted to get into anything elaborate. Still, he wanted to take care of Ryan and get his mind off losing their patient, and sex was the best way for both of them to relax.

  James’s eyes flickered to the table that Justin had sat the professor and his guest at. Yes, that could work. The woman that threw Justin into a tailspin was little, from what James could tell, and she had strawberry-blonde hair that curled a little and fell just past her shoulders. Yes, she was Ryan’s type. She would play nicely into a fantasy for them. And since Ryan hadn’t taken his eyes off her since Justin brought her to their attention, it wouldn’t be hard to get him into the right mindset.

  “Any guess as to who she is?” James asked.

  “No. Haven’t seen her around before. Believe me, I’d remember.”

  Damn, James could see the longing in Ryan’s eyes. They had talked and dreamed about finding a woman to share their life with ever since they got together in college. The reality was that it wasn’t a very practical dream. Triads didn’t usually work in the long run. James knew that finding a woman who would love them equally would be difficult enough, finding one that was into kink as well was hoping for a bit too much. He’d heard and seen plenty of horror stories through the years. One person playing off the other two, eventually breaking the whole triad up and breaking hearts beyond repair.

  They’d dated a few women, but they never found someone they were really interested in pursuing. James had a feeling that it would never happen, but Ryan was still optimistic. When Kat came to town and fit so perfectly with Mac and Jay, it only bolstered Ryan’s belief that it could be done. James viewed it differently. It reinforced for him how unique a person had to be in order to fit in their life. What were the odds that they would find a woman as perfect for them? Not too great in his opinion. Still, he could fantasize, too, and strawberry blonde was James’s favorite color on a woman.

  An hour later, and after a thorough examination of the newcomer, James smiled as he signed the dinner check. Yeah, he could use this little stranger to his benefit tonight and get on with life tomorrow. As they were getting ready to gather their things and head out, Justin came running over looking all distraught. He practically fell into the empty chair at their table.

  “Peanut butter! She asked if I had any desserts with peanut butter!” He whined in despair. “The one night I run out of peanut butter pie.” James could barely hear his morose whisper.

  “I’m sure she’ll live, and so will you. Did she enjoy her meal?” James was trying to rescue the situation. He glared at Ryan, who wasn’t helping as he was too busy trying to look straight through the table to avoid the whole conversation.

  “She loved it. Doesn’t matter. Her experience will forever be tainted because I didn’t have the pie. I failed her.”

  James looked back at her table again. She was bouncing around in her seat and talking rather fast. She liked to use hand gestures. She kept patting her head like she was looking for something. The professor was smiling indulgently at her, and every time she went searching in her hair he produced a pen for her so that she could scribble on napkins. James had a quick flash, a vision of her bound and helpless, he and Ryan making her center all that energy on her body’s response to them. If she couldn’t move a muscle, her release would be explosive. He mentally shook his head to rid himself of the thought before he embarrassed himself.

  He wasn’t too thrilled to realize that he was experiencing jealousy that Professor Holcox obviously knew this woman well. He wanted to be the one to provide her a pen. Actually, he wanted to feed her peanut butter pie, too. Fuck. I don’t even know her name, she’s just visiting, and I want to feed her. Get a grip. He needed to get home and get inside Ryan.

  They got up from the table and gave Justin a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine, beautiful. Maybe you could make a special pie just for her and deliver it to the professor? I’m sure you’d make her day.” That seemed to do the trick. Justin perked right up and scrambled away from the table, muttering about what a great idea that was.

  “Crisis averted.” Ryan chuckled. “Now let’s get out of here before another one pops up.”

  That was the plan. James put his wallet in his back pocket and turned to leave at the same time the woman at the professor’s table turned and locked eyes with him. The air left his lungs in a whoosh. He was immobilized by the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen. She was blinking at him like a little owl and he couldn’t for the life of him remember his own name. He was finally brought to his senses when he heard Ryan whisper in his ear.

  “We really need to get the hell home.”

  James looked at a shell-shocked Ryan. Yup, they truly did.

  * * * *

  Ryan didn’t even register the drive home. All he could think of was the stunning woman at the restaurant tonight. God, she was simply beautiful. Her curly hair and blue eyes were going to haunt him as much as her hyper little body. He watched her for the majority of their meal, and every time she wiggled with excitement over whatever she was discussing with Carl, his cock wiggled with her.

  He couldn’t remember a time when he had such a visceral attraction to a woman. There were plenty he found enticing, plenty he wanted to fuck, but this woman was different. This one, he wanted to own. Her eyes, her smile, her barely contained enthusiasm. He wanted it centered on him and James. He had to stop himself from ripping her out of her seat and taking her home like some idiotic caveman.

  The tension he felt radiating off James was making him even more edgy. This was going to be a fast and furious night. Thank God. He was so wound up he didn’t think he’d survive anything less. He needed release. He needed James to fuck him like his life depended on it. As soon as he got out of the car, he felt James grab the back of his neck in a biting hold. Yeah, James needed it, too.

  “When we get in the house you are to strip and bend over the foot of the bed, Ry. I don’t have the patience tonight, so you better hurry unless you want me to beat your ass instead of fucking it.” Ryan just nodded his head. No way. I want the fucking, thank you very much. Most of the time he liked to fight a little. He was the type of submissive who needed to make his Dom earn that gift. No matter how many years they’d been together or how much he loved James, he would never be the type to just fall to his knees. It was the way they both liked it. But this was not the night for games. He’d do as he was told to the goddamn letter to get this show on the road.

  As soon as he opened the door, Ryan started shedding his clothes. James was right behind him. He had to stop in the hallway to kick off his shoes and drop his pants. As he bent down to rip the offending material from his feet, James came up close and squeezed his ass in a brutal grip. Every cell in his body was firing messages of pleasure to his brain. And urgency. That was coming on a direct line from his cock.

  He stumbled into the bedroom and practically fell onto the bed facedown, feet spread wide on the floor. James smacked his left cheek so hard he knew there would be a handprint there.

  “Hands clasped behind your back. You don’t get cuffs or restraints tonight, Ry, so you better not lose your grip.”

  “Yes, James,” Ryan gasped. Jesus, it had been awhile since he was this turned on with zero foreplay. He needed this like he needed air. He watched as James started to coat his cock with a light layer of lube. Christ, his love for this man was still so intense it surprised him at times. He loved everything about him. But right now he couldn’t focus on anything but his beautiful cock. James wasn’t as long as Ryan, but he was a little thicker. And right now, he was so hard and ready, Ryan could see the entire length of him pulsing with an
ticipation.

  James stalked around him like he was assessing his prey. Not going anywhere, Sir. Attack already! He groaned when he felt James grab two handfuls of flesh and spread his ass open wide. Thankfully he was so used to taking James he didn’t really need any preparation. He had the distinct feeling he wasn’t getting any tonight.

  “You want her don’t you, Ryan.” He could feel James’s slick thumb prodding his hole and didn’t know how much longer he could hold back.

  “Yes,” he groaned. James took his thumb away and pushed into Ryan with just the head of his cock before he stopped and held still. He bent over Ryan’s back and bit into his shoulder. Then he licked his way to Ryan’s ear.

  “You want her beneath you. Her legs bent over your shoulders. I know what you need, Ry. You need to feel her from the inside, gripping you so hard you can’t breathe. Then you’d pinch her tight little nipples until she cried out for you. You want that, don’t you Ry.”

  “God, yes.” Just then, James slammed into Ryan until he could feel James’s balls smacking his own. He grunted with the sensation.

  “Don’t you dare come until I say.” James’s commanding tone sounded a little strangled.

  James had Ryan’s hips in a death grip, and he was fucking into him so fast and hard it took great effort to mumble out a “No, Sir.” With every stroke he could feel the orgasm gathering and strengthening. He could see those blue eyes staring up at him, and feel the tight clasp of her cunt. When James released one hip to reach around and squeeze and rub his cock, he knew he wouldn’t be able to obey for much longer.

  “You and I would take her together. Can you see her? Down on her knees for us? Taking us to the back of her throat in turns? I can. I can feel those curls in my hands. Would you grip her hair hard while I fuck you and you’re fucking her? When she’s so close she can’t move, would you collar her neck with your hand and give her just enough pressure to know it’s you who owns her?”

  With James’s words, the vision was solidified. Yes, he would do almost all of that. But not quite. “No, James.”

  James released his other hip and yanked Ry’s head back with a fierce grip. He stopped moving and just looked into Ryan’s eyes in confusion.

  “I’d collar her throat so she knows that we both own her,” Ryan huffed out. The look of love and astonishment on James’s face said it all. He wanted that, too.

  “Come for me, Ry. Hard.” With that, he slammed back into Ryan and stroked his cock furiously. Ryan came so hard, eyes still locked with James, that he felt a spasm of pain in his lower back. James grunted out his own release before collapsing on top of Ryan. It took a few minutes for them to catch their breath.

  Once James had painstakingly cleaned them both and did his best with the sheets, he crawled back into bed so Ryan could roll into his embrace. James kissed him gently on the lips. “We don’t even know her name or where she lives. I don’t want you getting your hopes up that we’ll even see her again, Ry.”

  Ryan closed his eyes and hugged James closer. He knew that James didn’t believe that they would ever find their third, but he wouldn’t give up that hope yet. And they definitely wouldn’t if they didn’t even try to date a woman and see if she fit them. “I know, James. It was just a fantasy.” He had never spoken words that sounded so untrue. They both drifted into an uneasy sleep as Ryan prayed that they would see their fantasy angel again.

  Chapter Three

  Alexa was packed and ready to go. It was the end of May and she would be spending over six weeks with a handful of students, camping in tents and digging for fossils in South Dakota. It was going to be a long summer. Usually, she stayed at the dig sites and helped the students identify their dead. She offered advice on technique and excavation, but then she was off to the next project. What they did with her advice, what they did with their finds never mattered to her. This year, she would help them find their discoveries and assist them with their research. She would be their writing advisor and share in their stress. Hopefully, at least one of them would get published by the end of the year. Then she could share in the joy of their accomplishments as well.

  She took a slow walk through her new home before packing all her equipment in the car. It had only taken two days to find a little cottage in Holly Oaks. As soon as she saw its natural stone veneer and numerous windows, she was in love. She didn’t tell Carl that she just bought the place instead of renting it. She didn’t want him knowing how desperately she needed the permanency, the right to call this place home. Renting always made her feel like an interloper. She wouldn’t be spending much time in her new cottage this summer, but she would be heading back on weekends, so she intended to make this space hers. Seeds took time to grow, but she was going to give her all to make sure this time she would have roots enough to keep her here.

  Just thinking about the six-hour drive she would be making most Fridays and Sundays was giving her a headache. Why had she volunteered to come back from the site in South Dakota with their findings and start setting up lab space and research materials at the museum? The students would only have a month when the fieldwork was done to utilize the museum’s resources before the fall semester began, so someone had to make sure everything was ready for them when they got back, but she was going to be running on all cylinders for the whole summer. She had a feeling that by the end of this year she was going to learn how to say “no” the hard way. If she didn’t die from exhaustion first.

  Shaking off the thought of so much work, she tried to muster that feeling of excitement before a new dig. This was an adventure, after all, and just maybe they would find something spectacular. She shoved her tent into the trunk and just barely missed crushing her fingers on the poles when she saw her neighbor saunter to her car. Alexa still hadn’t introduced herself, but she’d only seen the woman twice now and she didn’t come across as the warm and fuzzy type. She was intimidating with her high heels and elegant clothes. Not to mention she exuded this vibe of power that Alexa was not familiar with. Well, she’d have plenty of time to meet all her neighbors soon enough. No need to push her way into their lives.

  “Okay, clothes, digging tools, and tent…check. Beer, coffee, and peanut butter cups…check.” Alexa nodded to herself and closed her trunk. She had learned early in her college days that when you did fieldwork, there were some necessities you never forgot. The beer, coffee, and peanut butter cups were the most important items in her car right now. She was ready to go.

  Six boring hours later she arrived at the campsite. Carl had decided that she would take lead with this dig, and she was more than ready to get started. She didn’t even bother to unpack before she rounded up the students.

  “All right, ladies and gentlemen. We have six weeks to get you everything you’ll need to write your thesis papers, but we need to make every day count. Here’s how this field camp is going to go. For the first week and a half, we’ll be prospecting. We walk the site and look for fossils that have eroded out of the land. In just a few days you’ll be able to tell the difference between a rock and a bone on sight. I want you to flag the site where you find bones and bring the specimens back to camp. At night, I’ll ask you to bring out your dead, any of the fossils you brought back to camp. We’ll go over everything as a group and identify what you’ve found. I expect that you’ll come back with a lot of invertebrates and plenty of mosasaur teeth, hopefully, those pieces will lead us to a more complete fossil still buried.

  “If we’re lucky, we’ll come across a plesiosaur. There have only been a few found in this area, but they’re here and I want one. If we’re very lucky, by the end of the second week, we’ll have two specimens to excavate. The rest of the summer will be focused on that. You’ll learn how to chart every millimeter of the site. You’ll have to detail every bone and its orientation before it’s removed, or your efforts will be wasted. No one will publish you if everything isn’t done by the book. You’ll also learn how to stabilize the bone and remove it properly.

  �
��Once we’re back in Colorado, we’ll spend a month on freeing the bone from the surrounding rock, and the next semester on putting our body back together. What you do now dictates how much work you create for yourselves later.

  “Finally, camp rules. I don’t know any paleo students who don’t play as hard as they work, so just be responsible about it. If you can’t wake up to get to the sites, if you’re too hungover to work, you’ll have to deal with Carl. He likes to find roadkill or dead animals and bury them to study their decomposition. People that screw up out here have to help him. Hopefully, that’s incentive enough to watch how much you party at night.

  “Lastly, if you want to keep your fingers, don’t steal anyone else’s food or beer. Six weeks in a tent in the middle of nowhere is a long time to be stuck with enemies, people. And keep your mitts off my peanut butter cups if you want to live.”

  It took a lot of effort not to laugh at the ten pale faces in front of her. These kids weren’t familiar with her yet, and they had no idea if she was going to be a hard-ass or not. Good. She wanted to lay it all out there so they understood they were here to work and not walk all over her. She would loosen up with them after a few days.

  “I feel like I should salute you,” Carl whispered as he followed Alexa to her car.

  “I’ve just never had to be in charge before. I’m always sort of on the sidelines. I want them to take me and this seriously. I won’t spend the summer babysitting a bunch of twenty-one-year-olds.”

  “They’re a good group, Lex. You’ll see. And you are going to be a great teacher.” Carl hefted her tent out and spilled its contents next to his. “How are you going to get them to find the specimens you’ve already scoped out if they miss them?”

  Alexa lifted her shoulders and gave him her best innocent expression. “Trip them and hope their faces fall on the right bones?”