He released her hip and his grip on her wrist was gentle beneath her pillows, his thumbs stroking her pulse point as he fought for breath to speak and finally whispered in her ear, through her hair.
“Did I hurt you?”
Maybe it was just her pulse raging in her ears, maybe it was the way her body felt ultrasensitive all over, or maybe it was her intuition talking to her when she heard the tenderness in his voice.
He loves me and he doesn’t know what to do with it. Certainty filled her heart. It wasn’t just out of control, rough, wild sex that they both thrived on. It was more.
“No. You didn’t hurt me.”
“I did.”
“Just at first but that went away. What came after…”
She couldn’t find the words and let the delightful shudder that trembled through her speak for itself. He groaned when her ass clenched around him in reaction, too. Yes, it had hurt at first but the trade-off was the intimacy that she didn’t think she could ever put a voice to. His weight draped across her was heavy but so comforting. His hand caressing her shoulder and his breath on her ear, still so rapid, and his heat permeating her skin made her heart pound. He squeezed her to him tightly for a moment before he slowly pulled from her.
She moaned and shivered as he withdrew and climbed from the bed, leaving her empty and strangely forlorn. The shower came on in the bathroom and her breathing hitched when he was suddenly there again with a warm washcloth, cleaning her and pausing to whisper in a gravelly sounding voice, “I’m going to shower real quick, sweetness.”
She nodded and opened her eyes as Beck returned to the bathroom and noticed Patrick walk back into the bedroom. She must’ve drifted off and hadn’t been aware when he’d left. He climbed onto the bed and she noticed the tube of ointment in his hand. When she would’ve rolled from her widespread position on the pillows now that her limbs all worked again, he stayed her,.
“I want to put some ointment on you, Luce. I don’t want you to hurt later. How do you feel?”
Lucy relaxed once again and held the pillow as she looked up at him. “I tingle all over.”
Patrick smiled indulgently, and as her brain came back online, she realized he’d lain there and watched them have sex but hadn’t gotten any relief for himself. His cock was ramrod stiff between his powerful thighs but otherwise he seemed unconcerned, until he looked in her eyes. She could see the strain he was under.
She reached out a single finger and stroked the underside of his iron-hard shaft and smiled when he gasped. His fingers set off a flurry of tingles that started in her tender anus and spread through every pleasure center in her body. “Did you feel left out, Patrick?”
He tilted his head and looked at her and mulled her question over as he stroked the ointment into her and then cleaned his hands up. She grew nervous when he didn’t answer.
“You don’t have to answer that if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Patrick shook his head. “I think you mistake why I haven’t answered yet. Are you worried that Beck and I will become jealous of each other?”
“Yes. When the newness wears off, I worry that you’ll…”
“Keep score? Making sure we both get exactly the same amount of your attention?”
She rose up on an elbow. “Yes. Exactly.” She stroked his thigh as she spoke and was a little surprised when tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want you to feel cheated or disappointed. I’ll do my best to keep it fair.”
Patrick ran his fingers through the locks of hair that fell over her shoulder and leaned down to kiss them before lying down beside her and kissing her, too. “If you keep thinking like that, then we probably will have problems, Luce. Let us worry about that, okay? You’re making this out to be like work, or like having children who need constant reassurance that you love them equally.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know you didn’t but it makes sense, doesn’t it? Let us worry about finding balance. And there will be times like now where you’ll be giving your undivided attention to one of us. Did I feel left out earlier? No. Did I want to be the one inside you, taking your ass for the first time? Hell, yes. But there have been moments where Beck has taken the backseat, too. We’re not just winging this. We’ve had some good, long talks about how to handle things. And believe me, you’ll get plenty of practice multitasking, little tiger,” he growled as he slid a finger between her slick pussy lips.
His cock bobbed and she giggled as she moved out of his reach and rolled him on his back. “Multitasking, huh?”
Patrick chuckled as he put his hands behind his head and watched her slide the tip of her tongue up the length of his erection. His breath caught as she tongued the ridge of his head and then sucked him into her mouth. “You rebound pretty quick. You’re not too worn out?”
She released his cock with a pop, shocked by his question. “And leave you hanging? I don’t think so, baby. There’s a coma coming with my name on it but not before you give me your cum. Such patience deserves a reward.”
“Mmm-hmm,” he mumbled as he gently thrust his hips upward, sliding more of him between her lips.
She didn’t understand how they could keep from being jealous of each other. If the shoe were on the other foot, she knew there was no way she’d share either of them with another woman. She’d be cutting a bitch and wind up on the evening news.
Patrick grew more restless and groaned as she rubbed her palm against his balls, applying light pressure as she slid down his length, tightening her lips before she sucked him on the way back up.
The shower shut off and she could hear Beck moving around in the bathroom before the light was shut off.
“Hmm, what do we have here?” Beck said with a chuckle as he came close and fell onto the bed smiling, his dimples showing, as she continued paying attention to Patrick’s cock.
He didn’t say more, just watched as she took care of Patrick. Sweat broke out on Patrick’s upper lip and he gripped the bedcovers in his fists as she increased her efforts and set a rhythm that she could tell he liked.
“Yes. Suck it, baby.” His voice became more urgent as he whispered, “I’m about to come, Luce.” He reached for his cock, as though he intended her to let go so he could finish the last few strokes but she stilled his hands. She wanted all of him but she could tell he seemed surprised by that fact. She giggled and then moaned, giving him more stimulation, and happy that she was obviously the first to ever swallow his cum.
“I’m coming!” He sounded surprised and so vulnerable. That made her even more determined to please him as she sucked him until he arched his back and his cum bathed her throat in hot spurts. She swallowed every drop as he thrust into her mouth until he finally stilled on the bed.
She could hear a slight tremor in his voice as he whispered, “Holy fuck.”
When she was done licking him clean, she knelt up between his thighs and wiped her lips with the back of her hand and smiled down at him, well satisfied.
Patrick stared up at her and a grin crossed his lips. “She looks just like the cat that got into the cream, doesn’t she, Beck?”
“Mmm-hmm. It’s almost as much fun to watch her as it is to fuck her.”
Lucy burst into giggles and snuggled in between them. “Beck O’Malley, you are a profane man, you know that?”
Beck pulled her back against him, settling her tingling ass against his semierect cock. “I have other redeeming qualities though, don’t I?”
Patrick turned off the lamps and then snuggled to her front and drew her thigh over his so he could rest his hand on her butt cheek. She squeezed the forearm Beck had wrapped around her. “Many redeeming qualities, Beck. Thank you both for taking care of me.”
Something in her tone must’ve alerted Beck because he asked, “You okay?”
Lucy nodded in the darkness and Patrick said, “She’s worried we may get jealous. I think she has it in her mind that she’ll have to keep everything even between us or we’ll be unh
Lucy frowned, wishing Patrick had just kept that thought to himself.
Beck kissed her shoulder and said, “I think you think that you’ll have to work hard at taking care of us. It’s the other way around. You’re ours. We take care of you.”
He sounded awfully sure of himself but she wondered if he’d still feel that way when the new and shiny wore off. Her worries must’ve crept into her dreams because she was shaken awake an unknown time later, drenched in sweat and screaming.
Chapter Twelve
“Lucy, I’ll be right back. I’ve got to go check on PJ.”
Lucy nodded, still trembling, as Patrick threw on his shirt and jeans to go down the hall to check his son. She’d feel even worse about scaring the hell out of them if she’d awakened and scared PJ with all her screaming.
She sat up against Beck, the sheet clutched to her chest in a death grip with his arms around her. She was sweaty and shaky. He probably thought she was a big, gross baby. An image from the nightmare suddenly flashed in her mind and she jumped in fright. Her heart gave a painful lurch and she wondered if she’d ever stop having that dream.
Patrick returned a moment later and closed the door behind him. “I swear that boy could sleep through a war.” The concern in his eyes was honest as he shed his clothes and climbed into bed. “Tell us about it.”
Lucy shook her head. “It was just a dream. I don’t want to give it any more time in my head. I’m sorry about screaming in your ear, Patrick.”
Patrick caressed her cheek in the dark room and she could just make out the tenderness in his expression. “We’re pretty tough, Lucy. If you talk about it you might have an easier time falling asleep.”
“He’s right, sweetness. Tell us.”
She’d been determined to keep it to herself but something about his tone asked for her trust. “In the dream, I’m back with Chuck, hiking the Window Trail in the Chisos Mountains. We arrived at the Window and when I asked him to hold on to my hand so I could look over the edge, he agreed. I was scared to death but also elated. I held on tight and just as I was looking over, he said, ‘Just so you know, if you lose your balance, I’m letting go. I’m not risking you pulling me over the edge, too.’”
Beck’s arms tightened around her and his whole body vibrated with tension. Patrick lifted her hands from her knees, which were scrunched up to her chest, and held them gently. “What happened?”
“I looked back at him because I was shocked and I lost my balance and he—” A sob erupted from her. “He let go.” A wave of cold tingles traveled up her spine and she shivered.
“He let you fall?” Patrick asked, sounding outraged. He pressed kisses to both of her hands and then whispered, “We won’t let you fall.”
Beck caressed her cheek with his palm and she rubbed against him, comforted by his heat and gentleness. “Did Chuck tell you that in reality?” Her hesitation was his answer. “He did, didn’t he? When he was giving you shit about his mom hiring you a trainer, right?”
She nodded.
“Son of a bitch. He says something like that to you and then has the gall to get upset with you for breaking up with him and burns your house down?”
“He has a need for the last word,” Lucy said in explanation.
“What he really needs is my boot up his ass,” Beck growled. She giggled and snuggled back against him. “Do any of the guys know about this son of a bitch?”
“Seth knows. I asked him to not talk about it. It’s in the past. I haven’t heard one word from Chuck since I broke up with him and I want it to stay that way.” Even in the dark, she saw the look they shared. “I mean it, guys. His family could make a lot of trouble.” Patrick growled and then they dropped it, pulling her down between them and helping her get comfortable again. She told herself that it was her worries about her current relationship that were dredging up that old dream and tried to put the past from her mind. If she didn’t, it might poison her future. She was a different person now. A year wiser and more confident.
* * * *
Beck’s shoulders and back ached from the day’s work and he stopped to stretch again. He smiled, thinking he might get Lucy to have mercy on him and give him a back rub when he got to her house, if she didn’t get upset with him for interrupting her night alone. He knew he’d been grasping at straws when he’d taken the first feeble excuse he could come up with as reason to go to her house Monday night.
He’d worked all day out at the hives, and then in his workroom at the house, harvesting honey, and Lucy had occupied his mind quite a bit of the day. Her dream had disturbed him more than he could say, and the need to see her, spend time with her, had increased until he’d finally given in, recalling that she’d asked for a jar of honey the weekend before.
He pulled up behind her little red SUV on the driveway and when he opened the truck door he could hear the beat of music coming from her house. He smiled, knowing that Lucy liked to enjoy her music at a high volume.
He knocked on the side door that led into the kitchen and when she didn’t answer, he used the key she’d given him and let himself inside her house. She didn’t hear the door close over the music. It was after six and all the shades and curtains were drawn so the house was dim. He closed the door and paused in the kitchen, inhaling the aroma of something delicious baking in the oven mingled with the scent of laundry detergent and fabric softener. Laundry and dinner on her own. Sounded lonely.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that, fool. You just wanna know what she’s reeeeally up to.
He squatted down when Lucy’s cat, Waldo, came running to him and rubbed enthusiastically against his hands and his pant legs and flopped onto his back for a belly rub. His purring was even audible over the music.
The song playing on the stereo in the living room was vaguely familiar and he grinned wide when he remembered it. His dick hardened as he remembered sliding into her hot little ass the night before while “I Belong To You” by Lenny Kravitz had been playing. That is one damn fine memory, too. Evidently Lucy agreed, because he could hear her singing along with it in the living room. His eyes adjusted and his jaw all but hit the floor when he saw movement in the corner of his eye and turned to look.
Lucy was taking laundry from her washer, in the utility room off the kitchen, and putting it in the dryer…naked. He knew he should’ve made his presence known immediately but he didn’t. He kept watching. Each time she leaned over to reach the bottom of the washer, he got a glimpse of her sweet little pussy, which was a bit pink. His dick twitched when the slickness there caught the fading light. After starting another load, she turned and went back to the living room through the other door in the utility room.
What the hell is she up to? He knew she was alone because there was only one place set at the table, including a big goblet of chilled red wine. The beat of the music throbbed and he realized the same song was starting again. The thought that she was reliving last night through the music made him smile.
He’d scare the crap out of her if he didn’t make his presence known. He felt a little guilty because it seemed obvious that she was enjoying her evening alone. He’d apologize and leave the honey with her. But maybe she’d like it even more if he offered to stay.
“Lucy!” he called out over the music. “It’s me, Beck!”
He chuckled at her small squeal from the living room. A second later she turned down the music and hurried into the kitchen dressed in her silky bathrobe. Her nipples were peaked against the satiny fabric and her cheeks were flushed as she tied the sash at her waist. She was smiling.
“Beck!”
“Sorry I startled you. I knocked but you didn’t hear me so I used the key.”
Not a lie. Totally the truth.
“Oh…that’s okay. Is everything all right?” she asked with a small frown as she went to him and hugged him. She smelled fresh, like peaches and vanilla.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your evening, I…” Tell her the truth, chickenshit. “I brought you some honey, and…”
She looked up at him in the dim light as she slid her arms around his shoulders. She licked her lower lip as she gazed at his mouth and that was his undoing.
“And…I wanted to see you, even if it was only for a few minutes. Pretty pathetic, huh?”
She shook her head and smiled brightly. “No. Would you like to eat with me? Is Patrick coming over, too?”
Beck shook his head and it was his turn to flush. “No. He laughed when I told him I was swinging by your place.”
She suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Well…but…I don’t want him to feel left out.” Looking at the oven. “I made enough for two, so I’d have leftovers, but I could stretch it for three. Should I call him?”
She looked a little flushed and he tilted her chin so she would look at him. “First, tell me, what were you up to tonight?”
A naughty gleam came into her eyes as she licked her lower lip again. “Having a night to myself.”
Beck chuckled, glad she didn’t seem uncomfortable. “Naked?”
“Uh-huh. I made my favorite food, my mother’s recipe for baked chicken, and I was doing laundry, and…listening to music. Wait! How do you know I was naked?”
Shit.
“I came in right before you went in the utility room.”
“You were watching me?” she asked softly. She didn’t look angry and he noticed the way her voice caught in her throat. He filed that little tidbit for later exploration.
“What were you planning to do after you ate?”
“Um…”
“It must be good and hot judging by the color in your cheeks.”
“I thought I might watch a movie or something and…maybe play a little.” She sounded breathless when she admitted the last part.
Play? Play how? Play with what?
“Beck? You can stay if you’d like. I don’t mind. But Patrick…”
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