by Lauren Dane
“Hello, hello, Franklins!”
“Hamish! I had no idea you were here.”
Jessi’s delight should have made Adam happy. Instead the dumb, cocky Scottish asshole strolled into the dining room with his arms full of flowers, bags, and totes of wine, food, and presents and sucked it all away.
Jessi launched herself into the other man’s arms and he caught her up, managing not to drop a single thing he carried, laughing as he hugged her, leaving kisses over her nose and cheeks.
“Fancy that. I had no idea you were here.” Smiling, Hamish put her back to her feet, his hand at her waist to steady her.
“Adam and I came to dinner.” The way her smile changed when she looked to Adam soothed his annoyance.
That part of her belonged to no one else but him. It enabled him to be smiling easily when he focused on Hamish.
“It’s like old home week.” Hamish tipped his chin in Adam’s direction. “How’s it goin’, mate?”
“Good. You?”
Adam had no need to reach out to show his claim on Jessi. She looked at him. Looked at him, and there was no one but him. But the deep, burning need to punch that asshole’s fucking face never totally went away.
Addie and James welcomed Hamish, taking the flowers and packages, Addie excitedly thanking him for the treats.
A cat wove its way through Adam’s legs and he snorted. “I haven’t seen you before, cat. You’re a newbie, aren’t you?” He went to his haunches to pet the top of its head.
After orders to wash hands and get to the table, Adam stood side by side at the big kitchen sink with Jessi, who bumped him with a hip. “Hi.”
“Hello.” He tried to keep his voice normal, but all he could think about was licking her pussy.
“You’re going to get me in trouble if you keep looking at me that way,” she said quietly, handing him the towel after she’d dried up.
“God, I hope so.”
They headed into the dining room, sitting where Addie told them. Much like her youngest daughter, Addie had reasons for everything she did, which meant you never knew where you’d be sitting or what you’d be eating at the Franklins’ table.
So you went with it, because who wanted to make any Franklin woman sad? Jessi ended up across the table with a toddler on one side and her father on the other.
“Thwarted by a two-year-old,” Adam said.
“Plenty of me to go around,” Jessi said, laughing as she kissed Rynn’s fist.
“Made to have a baby at her hip, that one,” Hamish said in an undertone that was so carefully casual it was pointed.
Adam wasn’t taking the bait. “Maybe. But not right now.”
“Sure. I suppose in the meantime she can raise you and Mick.”
Adam barely withheld a growl, and Jessi looked him over carefully. Concern for her and respect for the Franklins meant Adam got his shit together and barely held back a sneer in Hamish’s direction.
James said a quick blessing for the meal and soon enough, the platters began to shift from person to person.
Jessi continued to glance his way as she cut food up and put it on Rynn’s high-chair tray.
“Jessilyn, my queen, your father tells me you’ve gotten yourself a job making costumes for the Seattle Opera. Congratulations. I couldn’t be happier for you. Tell me what you’re working on right now,” Hamish coaxed.
Jessi blushed and it charmed the annoyance right out of Adam once more.
Something had gone on between Hamish and Adam, that much was clear. Adam’s brow had furrowed—he’d have a wrinkle there by the time he was forty, and it would look sexy—and his back had stiffened.
Hamish had that smug little smile he got when he successfully needled someone.
Jessi’s father had found Hamish living in an alley near their local grocery store. He’d been thrown away by his family and had nowhere to go but the streets. James and Addie Franklin had slowly tamed Hamish. First with clean clothes and food. Then they’d invited him for lunch on a Saturday and let him use their washer and dryer and the bathroom to clean up.
It had taken about eight months before he’d moved into the garage, taking over what had been a shop-type space James hadn’t ever really used. But it had been a safe place for the boy, who lived there for another two years on and off until he headed out to make it big with his band.
And he had. Oh, not for years and years. But the scrawny, jumpy, and seriously moody teenager who’d watched everyone as if they’d be bound to disappoint him had grown into a man confident in his craft though still guarded except with a very few people.
He and Adam weren’t friends, though in Jessi’s opinion they should be. So much alike, those two.
“I’m finishing up a gown for Don Giovanni. Spent what feels like a thousand hours on the bodice of a wedding dress. She loves sparkles. I told her about this dream I’d had about her wrapped in starlight. And do you know her fiancé is an astronomer? Right?” She grinned at her mother, who exclaimed happily.
Hamish dug into his food, which made Jessi relax a little. On and off over the time she’d known him, he’d struggled with various addictions. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been too thin, a ball of nervous, fuzzy energy.
That night he looked good. Healthy.
“So I’ve embroidered and dealt with crystals until my eyeballs want to fall out. But it’s the stars in the sky the night they met. I mean, obviously not perfect, but close. And the magic is there.”
“It’s good to see you so happy, Jessilyn.” Hamish meant it. No smirk as he needled anyone.
She looked over to Adam and smiled. He’d been watching her as he ate. Listening, giving her his attention.
“Thank you. I have to admit, my life is pretty wonderful. I’m home, surrounded by all the people I love. Doing a job that makes me happy.”
“You deserve it, angel.” Adam lifted his glass of iced tea her way. She was so very blessed.
“What are you doing in Seattle? Visiting? Doing a show?” she asked Hamish during the next lull in conversation.
“I’m playing here in a few weeks. I’m thinking of buying a house. Portland, Seattle, maybe Vancouver. I need to be away from New York and London.”
“He called a few hours ago. Asked if he could stay in the guest room.” Addie gave Hamish a censuring look. “Imagine. Asked, like he was a guest instead of family.”
There was no mistaking the affection in her mom’s voice. Even better, Hamish accepted that affection so freely offered.
She didn’t need to ask Hamish what he’d meant when he’d said he needed to be away from London and New York. Jessi knew they weren’t always the safest places for him to keep his life together.
He’d come home. Not a luxury hotel or a long-term rental, but to the Franklins’ modest, chaotic ranch-style house to sleep in Jessi’s old bedroom. He was running scared—from what she didn’t know, but she’d make it a point to find out the next time they were alone.
It was enough to know he’d sought out that protection as she watched both Hamish and Adam begin to relax and stop eyeing one another like they were thinking about throat punching.
She hoped Mick was all right. Wondered if she should text him. Decided not to until after dinner. Just a quick check-in after she helped Charlie get Rynn cleaned up and changed into pajamas.
Mick didn’t reply, so she wasn’t sure if his phone was off, or if he was in the middle of something or maybe on the way home. She sent a picture of herself smiling at him, hoping he could see how much she loved him, and tucked the phone in her pocket before heading back out to the living room.
An hour later they said their good-byes and headed back to Adam’s place.
CHAPTER
Twelve
Mick tried not to make a lot of noise when he got home, but he obviously failed because Jessi came downstairs with a frown, Adam on her heels, telling her to hold up.
Mick laughed because it was exactly what he’d needed. Them, concerned about hi
m. Adam being Adam. Jessi wasn’t going to wait upstairs because Jessi did whatever she wanted to even if Adam told her to do otherwise.
Mick needed the way they both looked at him now.
“Hey,” he said as he dropped his jacket on the back of a chair.
Adam’s gaze went to it, and then back to Mick’s face.
“Did you drive like this?” Jessi demanded, one hand on her hip.
“Like what?”
Her eyes widened and then narrowed into slits that a smarter man would have recognized. “Are you kidding me right now?”
Adam watched the scene, one brow raised in Mick’s direction. Watching Mick drive himself off the goddamn road as he pushed Jessi like a fool most likely.
“I drove home a few hours ago. You weren’t here so I walked down to get a drink. And I walked back.”
“You went to have a drink? Two hours ago I texted you to see where you were and you ignored me and instead went to have a lot more than one drink with strangers instead?”
“Why are you on my fucking case?” Mick demanded, pissed that she knew him so fucking well. Then she flinched a little and he cursed himself for getting so damned drunk.
Adam stepped between Mick and Jessi, his gaze intense and unhappy. “I know you didn’t just speak to her like that. You obviously understand how disrespectful that tone would be to someone you just promised to cherish just a few days ago.”
The pain of that truth sent nausea through his belly. Jessi continued to watch Mick from around Adam’s right arm.
“I’m sorry.” Mick rubbed his palms over his head.
“Why do you punish yourself so hard? Hmm?” Jessi asked softly as she pushed herself forward.
Adam gave up trying to shield her with a sigh, encircling her with one arm, hugging her close to his side.
Jessi leaned out and hooked her finger through one of Mick’s belt loops and tugged him closer.
“I’m on your case because I love you.” Jessi shook her head. “You can’t scare me away with your pissy attitude.”
“What happened at dinner?” Adam asked this time as he brought Mick the last inches separating him from them with a hand at the back of Mick’s neck and then hummed, satisfied at the contact.
He brought Mick from a singular to a plural again with that last bit of space between them all gone. He’d accepted Jessi knowing him so well, but Adam got to him, understood him better than he’d realized.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” If the words got free they’d tear from the place he’d walled them into. He didn’t want that kind of pain.
Adam shook his head. “You don’t need to drink yourself into oblivion. You can find oblivion in better ways.”
Mick’s nipple hardened as Jessi drew her nails over it and the bar piercing it. He moaned, pressing into her touch. “Harder.”
Jessi cupped his cock through his pants but he’d had more to drink than his sluggish dick preferred. The rest of him throbbed, wanting more.
“You don’t have to punish yourself to get the pain you crave, Mick.”
Adam’s words sent a ripple of lust so hot and sharp it seared through Mick’s body.
The palm he’d had cupping the back of Mick’s neck shifted to collar his throat, squeezing enough to make a point.
“Whiskey dick displeases me,” Adam said into Mick’s ear.
A sound—yearning—broke from Mick’s lips.
“You’re damaging what’s mine when you drink like this.”
Adam brushed his mouth over Mick’s, licking and then biting his bottom lip so hard Mick grunted, his hips jutting forward, wanting more.
“Get these clothes off and into the washing machine. Then jump into the shower.” Adam let go, stepping back, taking Jessi with him. They turned to head upstairs, leaving Mick standing in the living room, staring after them.
“Keeping me waiting isn’t something that gets my dick hard, Mick,” Adam called out at the top of the stairs.
Mick could pretend to be macho. He could refuse to bottom in this kind of way. But he couldn’t lie to himself at the way Adam made him feel just then. The dark, sweet temptation of giving over.
This was far more than a cock in his ass. This was submission on a different level. He wasn’t sure what it meant or what it said about him.
Jessi’s moan drifted down to Mick, spurring him to take that first step. And then the second as he began to strip on his way to the laundry room. Less than five minutes later he walked into their bedroom only to stumble to a halt at the sight.
Jessi on her knees in the middle of the bed, totally naked. Adam leaned against the nearby doorjamb wearing pajama bottoms and nothing else.
“Jessi turned the water on for you so it’s hot,” Adam told Mick.
“You two should join me in there.” Mick stepped to the bed, reaching out to touch Jessi. “You look so pretty here on your knees.” And she did.
Adam spoke. “No touching. Jessi and I have plans. We’ve been waiting for you to get started, but I’m done waiting now. The quicker you obey me, the quicker you’ll get to play with us.”
Adam’s words were a whip, snagging Mick’s attention. Compelling him to obey.
He might have a case of whiskey dick, as Adam so delicately put it, but if anyone could revive his cock, it was Jessi, who made such a picture on her knees in their bed.
Mick hurried past to the bathroom, leaving the door open to watch them as he got into the shower.
Even the steam on the enclosure couldn’t hide the way Adam took Jessi in. He spoke to her and she nodded, sliding her palms all over her upper body, her head tipping back as she did.
Quickly, Mick rinsed off, never taking his attention from Jessi on her knees, her hands cupping her breasts, caressing her shoulders and upper arms, back arched, head tipped.
The water and brisk dry-off woke Mick up, drove the drunken lethargy away, letting desire fill that space instead.
When he got back out to the bedroom, Adam pointed at the chair to his left.
“Jessilyn, love, keep touching yourself.”
Mick settled on the chair, naked, cock half-hard—no quitter, his penis—marveling at what a gorgeous creature their woman was.
Jessi pinched her nipples, her eyelids drifting closed as she did. She hummed her arousal and it sang up Mick’s spine.
“This is what you can’t have when you abuse yourself, Mick.” Adam got close enough to Jessi to gather her hair in his fist and yank it, forcing her to arch deeper. Thrusting her tits higher. Mick’s breath gusted from his lips when Adam bent to scrape the edge of his teeth over that pale skin. His fingers tightened on his knees when Adam licked over her nipple.
“I can make you feel good. Both of you,” Mick replied as he gripped his cock. Good. But not enough.
“You can. And you do.” Adam continued to watch Mick over Jessi’s body. “If you weren’t so set on cutting yourself to shreds at the bar, you could be here with us. I could be giving you pain. Not from disdain or anger, but because you want it, because you need it, and because from me it’s beautiful.”
Jessi’s right hand stole between her thighs.
Entranced, Mick was unable to tear his gaze away when Adam growled and delivered a sharp, loud slap to her ass.
Mick gasped at the same time Jessi did.
But she didn’t take her hand away.
Taunting.
Playing that game she and Adam played so very well.
Adam’s smile went feral at the edges, and Mick’s skin went hot and cold at the same time.
“Tell me what you want, love.” Adam grabbed her wrist with one hand and with the other he delivered two sharp slaps to her pussy. There was no disguising how wet Jessi was. Or how hot she found the sting when she groaned, a flush building from her throat.
“Touch me. Fuck me. Let me touch you.” Her words ran together slightly but there was no mistaking what she needed.
And no doubt Adam would give it to her.
Mick
wanted to help. Wanted to be part of what was happening. Needed to have them touch him too.
He stood but Adam shifted to stare at him. “Sit.”
Mick attempted to be outraged by that casual order.
Instead his dick throbbed to life a little more as he sat.
As he’d been told to.
“I am touching you, love,” Adam murmured to Jessi.
“Let me touch you both,” Mick said.
Adam got behind Jessi on the bed. He hauled her to his body as he caressed every part of her he could reach. All while he never looked away from Mick.
Mick swallowed hard, mouth dry as he took them in. Jessi, so beautiful in Adam’s arms, nipples hard, skin pink and desire flushed, her gaze gone blurry. Adam firmly in control. There was a light in his gaze and Mick knew it probably meant something really good for him.
The need for that, for whatever Adam planned to dole out, terrified Mick.
Not as much as it intrigued him.
Not as much as he wanted.
He’d started out just wanting to drink the night off his mind. Planned to come home, roll around with them a bit, and pass out. He’d had more than he should have, yes, but he didn’t drive anywhere. He hadn’t puked in the front room or cheated.
Mick hadn’t expected Adam to be angry. Maybe annoyed. Long-suffering even. But not angry.
“I’m going to make Jessi come all over my hand. And then I’m going to fuck her from behind. All while you watch. I’m in charge here, Mick. And you don’t get to fuck yourself up. Only I get to do that.”
Mick’s cock seeped pre-come. “Looks like I’m revived enough to participate after all,” he said hopefully.
Adam’s answering look told Mick that wasn’t going to happen. At least not on his schedule.
“Look, I said I was sorry,” Mick told them.
Adam stopped what he was doing. “You did not. Further, you don’t even know what to apologize for right now. You just want to get your dick wet.”
“I had a fucked-up time at the old family home tonight. Is it so wrong that I needed to have a few drinks?” Mick asked.
Jessi pouted and Mick regretted that he’d been so loud.