Something Sparked-nook

by Mari Carr

“I’ll touch base with y’all later. Right now I feel like going home and holding my wife and baby.”

  Diego grinned. “Yeah. I hear that. Talk to you later, Evan.”

  He hung up, and then told Jeannette about Roy.

  Her response took him aback. “I’m not surprised. Billy said it was bad.”

  Luc, who had picked up Penny to rub her stomach, stopped mid-pet. “Billy? When?”

  “He was at the restaurant just before the fire. I can only assume Scott had intended to move sooner, but hesitated with Billy inside. Sort of screwed up his time schedule with the false alarm because it gave y’all time to get back to town. He didn’t throw the Molotov cocktail until Billy left.”

  Diego knew she was talking, but he struggled to hear, to understand the words. He took a step closer to Jeannette. “You talked to Billy?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. I did. He apologized for…” She hesitated when he growled. The sound escaped before he could call it back. Then she finished, “He apologized for everything.”

  Diego scowled. “I don’t give a shit if he said he’s sorry. Is that supposed to make up for what he did to you?”

  Jeannette had tried to convince him to let things with Billy go this morning, but he’d never agreed. He couldn’t. That man had a day of reckoning coming. However, before he could explain that to Jeannette, she cut him off.

  Jeannette lifted one shoulder. “I accepted the apology.”

  Diego’s temper exploded. “You did what?!”

  Luc placed Penny on the chair where she’d been sleeping and moved over to put his hand on Diego’s arm. Diego shook it off. He didn’t need Luc trying to placate him. This was fucking bullshit.

  “Come on, D. Keep it together, man. Listen to what she has to say.”

  Jeannette gave Luc an appreciative smile, the look annoying Diego even more. He wasn’t the bad guy in this. Billy Mathers was. “Jeannette—”

  She shook her head, refused to allow him to speak. “No, Diego. It’s done. It’s over. Anger and fear take a lot of energy. I should know. I’ve been in a perpetual state of exhaustion for fifteen years.”

  Diego struggled to keep his tone quieter when he spoke again, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still angry, still upset. “He raped you. I can’t forgive that. You can’t ask me to.”

  “You’re right. I can’t. All I can do is ask you to understand that I have. I’m tired of living in the past. He’s moving.”

  He suspected she threw that last comment out like tossing a bone to a dog. “He is?”

  “Yeah. He just came home to take care of his uncle, to get his affairs in order. He’s selling the farm. Said he knew seeing him around town would only continue to remind me. To hurt me.”

  Despite his desire to remain angry, he had to admit he was glad the guy was leaving. “Good riddance,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Jeannette grinned sadly. “Besides, how much more bad karma can I wish on the guy? His uncle just died and he helped see his brother arrested for crimes that will put him behind bars for years, maybe the rest of his life.”

  Diego put his hands on his hips. “Are you saying he’s suffered enough?”

  Jeannette moved closer, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m not saying anything except I’m finished thinking about it. Right now, the only thing I care about is us. The present and maybe…a future?”

  Diego didn’t respond at first, and then he realized her words had come out uncertain. “Are you questioning our future? Because I’m pretty sure I mentioned that happily ever after thing already.”

  She kissed him. “Maybe so, but there’s still the issue of that fire I need tending to.”

  Luc laughed. He’d been quiet during Diego and Jeannette’s argument, but one look at his best friend’s face told him Luc had been struggling with the same things he had. It appeared Jeannette’s words had eased Luc’s mind. Not surprising. Luc was better at letting things go. Diego was pretty sure he wouldn’t relax until he saw the taillights of Billy Mathers’ car as he drove out of town.

  But for Jeannette’s sake, he’d keep those feelings to himself. It had taken courage for her to confront her rapist and then to offer him forgiveness. Diego’s love for her tripled at the thought.

  “Bedroom,” Diego said, pointing down the hallway. Today, the kid gloves were coming off.

  Luc and Jeannette both grinned.

  “Looks like the big chief is back in town,” Luc joked.

  Diego narrowed his eyes. Luc knew better than to taunt the bull. Then again, maybe his friend was doing it on purpose. Luc craved a rough touch.

  But he wasn’t sure Jeannette was ready to see just how much.

  Of course, that concern was fleeting. Especially when Jeannette leaned closer to Diego. “Maybe you should punish him,” she suggested.

  Diego reached out to place a playful smack on her ass. “Or I could punish both of you.”

  She snapped his red suspenders, reminding him of her comment outside the restaurant.

  Luc grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hallway impatiently. Diego followed, but he took his time, trying to get control of his own raging needs. His two lovers tested his stamina. He’d always sort of prided himself on his staying power, but with Luc and Jeannette in his bed, he felt like a fifteen-year-old boy, ready to blow within seconds.

  As he entered the bedroom, he saw Jeannette helping unhook Luc’s suspenders. When his friend dropped down on the edge of the mattress, she started tugging off Luc’s boots as well. He imagined the two of them coming home in the middle of the night after running a call and Jeannette being there to take care of them.

  Luc didn’t bother waiting for either of them. He kept disrobing until he was completely naked. His cock was fully erect and ready for action. Diego wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his friend so eager.

  “In a hurry?” Diego teased.

  Luc, the most peaceful man on the planet, narrowed his eyes. “You have no fucking idea. If you’re planning some drawn-out fuckfest, I’m going to tell you right now, I’m not going to last that long. I figure it’s a good thing the three of us have forever stretching out in front of us because it’s going to take me some time to get a handle on how much I need both of you.”

  Leave it to Luc to sum up his feelings so perfectly.

  “Jeannette,” Diego said. “Baby, how would you feel about us tying you up later? Looks like Luc is hurting.”

  The cheeky minx laughed. “How chivalrous of you.” She walked over and slid her hand down the front of his pants. Before Diego could react, she had her hand wrapped tightly around his hard cock. “You sure you aren’t hurting, too?”

  Diego swallowed heavily. “I swear to God, one of these days I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank that pretty ass of yours.”

  She stroked his dick, applying just the right amount of pressure. She’d been paying attention.

  Through gritted teeth, he finished his thought. “But right now…I just need to be inside somebody. Fucking them. Hard.”

  He expected Jeannette to giggle, but the hungry look in her eyes told him she wasn’t faring any better.

  “Take off your clothes, Jeannette.” He used the deep-voiced, commanding tone she loved. It worked.

  Jeannette’s fingers flew to the task. Luc had risen from the bed to help both of them pull off their clothing. He snagged her glasses to place them on the nightstand before drawing Jeannette’s t-shirt over her head, and then he turned to tug off Diego’s boots. Only once they were all naked did they really start to touch each other.

  By tacit agreement last night, he and Luc spent the evening focusing all their attention on Jeannette. It had been her first time and they both wanted to make sure it was special. Today, the game had changed.

  When Luc kissed her, she reached out for Diego, pulling him into their circle. She pulled away briefly. “Kiss each other.”

  There was no hesitation. His lips met Luc’s in a hungry, demanding touch that grew even hotter w
hen Jeannette reached down and took both of them in her hands.

  Luc reared back. “Fuck, Jeannette. That feels too good. I gotta be inside you.”

  While Diego had enjoyed the foreplay of last night’s encounter, there was something very tempting about a quickie. He guided Jeannette to the bed, helping her scoot to the center.

  “Open your legs, angel. Let Luc inside.”

  Luc and Jeannette moved into position in record time. So quickly that Diego realized he’d better move fast or he’d miss the train.

  Luc had just seated himself to the hilt, his entrance provoking the sexiest gasp from Jeannette’s pink lips. Her long blonde hair flowed over the fluffy white pillow and for a moment, he wondered if she really was an angel floating on a cloud, sent from Heaven just for them.

  Diego placed his hand on Luc’s ass, pressing down to halt his friend’s movements. Luc gave him a quizzical look over his shoulder.

  “Wait for me,” Diego said.

  Luc shuddered, pure, unadulterated need flashing in his eyes.

  While they’d enjoyed each other’s bodies, as well as those of the women they had taken to bed, Diego had never fucked Luc while he was inside their lover.

  “Hurry,” Jeannette pleaded, clearly unaware of the magnitude of what was about to happen. They’d explain it to her. After.

  For now, Diego had two lovers to claim. He reached into the nightstand for the lubrication and a condom.

  Luc groaned as he worked the gel into his ass with two fingers, then three. Every now and then, Luc’s hips would lurch forward, driving him deeper into Jeannette. She would cry out and beg Diego to go faster. She was as turned on as they were.

  If there had been any doubts about her acceptance of his and Luc’s relationship with each other, they were quashed in an instant.

  Once Luc was ready, Diego knelt behind him on the bed. Slowly, he pressed into Luc’s tight ass as his friend struggled to remain still. Diego could only imagine how intense this moment was for Luc. To take and be taken.

  “Jesus,” Luc muttered when Diego reached the hilt.

  None of them moved. Or breathed.

  Then Penny jumped up on the bed, startling them all.

  Jeannette laughed as she shooed her cat away. And then, just like that, they were in motion. It took them a few attempts to find the rhythm. Luc rearing back as Diego moved forward. Then Luc pushed into Jeannette during Diego’s outward motion.

  The room was filled with a unique cacophony of sounds. Jeannette’s lilting cry when Luc hit her G-spot. Luc’s grunt when Diego came in harder or faster. Diego added his own groans when Luc reared back roughly, giving as good as he got.

  Diego wasn’t sure when he lost total control, but one of Luc’s hard jerks sent him to another level. He gripped his lover’s hips, pounding into Luc without heed or caution.

  The flip switched the trigger on Luc, who took Jeannette with the same reckless abandon.

  Red welts appeared on Luc’s shoulders as Jeannette’s nails raked his flesh. It was a strange thing to fixate on, but Diego couldn’t pull his eyes away from the scratches or the look of utter bliss on Jeannette’s face.

  It was all too much. Diego thrust forward once more, his balls exploding as he came so hard it fucking hurt.

  Luc and Jeannette were two beats behind him, both of them shaking as their own climaxes overtook them.

  Luc was the first to fall, his body dropping to Jeannette’s right. His eyes closed in a look that was the perfect mixture of pain and satiation.

  Diego rose and tossed the condom into a trashcan, before claiming his place next to Jeannette, who turned and kissed him.

  “I want to do that every single day.”

  He chuckled. “We’ll be dead within a week.”

  “I don’t care.”

  He could see she didn’t. Hell, he didn’t either. Diego placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. “Love you.”

  Diego would give every last penny he had just to see the way her face lit up when he told her that.

  Luc rolled to his side, his arm coming around Jeannette, sighing. Diego grinned at the exhaustion in the sound. “Are we going to sleep today away, too?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jeannette said, just as Penny jumped back onto the bed. The cat found her way between Diego and Jeannette. She began to purr. “I think Penny is on board for that, too.”

  Diego ran his hand along the cat’s soft fur, which encouraged Penny to flip over onto her back. He rubbed her belly.

  Luc reached over Jeannette to pet Penny as well. “I’m starting to think you guys are more into my cat than me.”

  Luc chuckled. “She is a pretty soft pussy.”

  Jeannette elbowed him, her expression going serious. “I’ll never be able to thank you guys enough for saving her. And more than that…for saving me.”

  Luc pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You saved us. too, Jeannette. There’s a big difference between merely existing and living a life that’s exciting.”

  Diego leaned as close as he could without disturbing Penny, who had already fallen asleep. “Happy ending?”

  She nodded. “The happiest. We blew Beauty and the Beast out of the water.”

  They settled into their places, Diego and Luc surrounding Jeannette and her sweet cat, Penny.

  Diego’s last thought as he drifted to sleep was that they’d done it.

  Created the perfect family.

  Epilogue

  Macie wiped up the counter. It was a Tuesday night and the dinner crowd had come and gone. Gia was bussing the last dirty table. She could hear Sydney and Jeannette closing down the kitchen for the evening. Her dad, TJ, had already gone home.

  Luc and Diego were hanging out at the bar, while Chas was in a corner booth, chatting with Sydney’s dad, Uncle Lynn.

  The guys were there to pick up their girlfriends…just like they did every night. Macie tried not to roll her eyes at how annoyingly in love her older cousins were. Lately, all Jeannette and Sydney did was walk around in a continual state of just-had-amazing-sex. It was enough to drive her batty. Mainly because, for the first time since she’d lost her virginity in the backseat of Hank Watson’s Buick back in tenth grade, Macie was suffering a dry spell.

  She had decided early on that she didn’t agree with the double standards attached to sex. Guys could fuck with reckless abandon and walk around like studs. If a woman did the same thing, she was labeled a slut. The whole thing pissed her off. She was a woman. And she liked sex. A lot. Whether she had that sex with a long-term boyfriend or if she hooked up the hot guy she’d just met at Cruisers didn’t really matter to her.

  However, lately, her attitude toward sex had changed. She suspected it was because of all the monogamous couples surrounding her. Macie had never had a problem separating sex and love. In her opinion, the two didn’t necessarily have to go hand in hand. Or at least, that was what she used to believe.

  Now, she was coming to the conclusion that she wanted to get married. Desperately.

  That idea wouldn’t have been quite so disturbing if it weren’t attached to the realization that her Mr. Right wasn’t in Maris.

  Unfortunately, home is where the heart is, and her heart lived and breathed and flourished in this neck of the woods, and nowhere else.

  “Earth to Macie. Hello?”

  Macie blinked, then she realized Luc was talking to her. “Did you want something else?”

  Luc tilted his head. “You okay, Mace? You’ve been quiet tonight. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a room with you when your voice wasn’t the constant white noise in the background.”

  “Asshole,” she said in response to his teasing. She pitched a peanut at him, just narrowly missing his head as he dodged.

  “Hey, I just finished sweeping the floor,” Gia said, bending down to pick up the peanut.

  “I asked what you thought was going on over there.” Luc pointed to Chas, who’d just risen from the table. He shook Lynn’s hand and they said good night as Ly
nn took his leave.

  “No idea,” Macie muttered, though she actually had a pretty good idea.

  Chas joined them all at the bar.

  “Everything good?” Diego asked Chas, fishing.

  Chas merely nodded, but from the smug expression on his face, it was clear he was happy.

  Before they could question him further, Sydney and Jeannette walked out of the kitchen and joined them.

  “All clear in there,” Jeannette said.

  Sydney glanced around the room. “Did my dad leave?”

  Chas nodded.

  Macie tossed her dishcloth into the sink, her own cleaning finished as well. “Yeah, we were about to give Chas the third degree on the serious conversation they were having.”

  Chas narrowed his eyes at Macie.

  “Serious conversation?” Sydney asked.

  “We were just talking,” Chas said. Then he looked around. Macie was surprised when he let loose a heavy sigh. “Dammit. I hate surprises. And waiting.”

  Sydney laughed and shook her head. “I know all about your issues with both of those things.”

  “You know I saw you for the very first time in this room. Gran had brought me here for lunch one day and you were sitting right there at the counter drinking a milkshake. You were giggling at something TJ said to you and I thought you looked really pretty. Isn’t it funny how vividly I can remember that? I mean, I was only five years old.”

  Sydney blushed, and Macie could tell her cousin was touched by Chas’ sweet memory. “You never told me that.”

  The room went completely silent when Chas dropped down to one knee in front of Sydney.

  “I was going to do something romantic, take you out to eat, buy you flowers, but I can’t wait for you, for this anymore, Syd.”

  Sydney’s mouth had fallen open. “Chas,” she whispered.

  “I asked your dad if I could propose to you. He gave us his blessing.”

  Macie had never thought herself a romantic fool or someone who was particularly held up on such old-fashioned traditions, but suddenly she wanted to meet someone just like Chas. Someone who would remember the first time he saw her, who would ask her dad for her hand in marriage. Someone so excited to propose, he couldn’t wait more than three minutes after getting the dad’s permission.