Coming Back

by Lauren Dane

  Adam winced. “I spoke to her earlier. She’s in a really good mood. Finishing up something earlier than she thought, so we have dinner plans for nine. I hate to alarm her. And it’s not like he said anything he hasn’t already said in some form or other.”

  Asa snorted. “I can tell you from experience that if you sandbag something, she’ll find out at some point and all will love her and despair.”

  “I find it so weird that you quote Lord of the Rings as often as you do.” Mick sighed. “Let me think about it. You too, Adam. There’s no use telling her if it’s not face-to-face anyway. And if we do, it should be more like Mick’s dad was a jerk and dropped by Twisted Steel, but luckily Mick wasn’t there, so nothing bad happened.”

  “That’s pretty good.” Adam nodded.

  Mick started eating again, feeling better now that they’d gotten to that point. “We’ll monitor this and if he steps over that line we set, we act. Otherwise, hopefully he’ll find someone else to condemn to hell.”

  CHAPTER

  Twenty

  Adam left Mick and Jessi cuddling on the couch, letting them know he’d call them up when he was ready for them.

  Mick was stressed-out and worried. His energy was all over the place, so before he did anything stupid, Adam planned to help him out and exorcise some of the demons his father had visited upon him.

  Involving Jessi would help her too. Though they’d used the more casual “oh by the way, Mick’s dad showed up at work today” way to tell her, she was agitated. Concerned for their little family.

  Mick’s gaze held shadows.

  Adam aimed to push the darkness back because Mick deserved to live in the light with them.

  He drank a glass of red wine as he prepared the guest room where he’d finished installing the suspension bar at the foot of the bed. It’d go perfectly with the cuffs he’d picked up from JT’s Stockroom with Mick in mind.

  After he’d made them wait long enough, he called them both up.

  Laughing, they tumbled into the room shortly after that, but Jessi’s eyes widened when she took in the toys spread out on the bed and Adam standing there in the low-slung sleep pants he liked to wear when he played with them.

  A surge of possessiveness rushed through Adam as he took them in. Mick’s blush, not a shy one, and Jessi’s excitement. They were his as surely as he was theirs.

  “Jessilyn, you need to be naked and kneeling on the mattress. Close to the foot so you can help me with Mick.”

  Jessi got naked quickly, sending Adam a look over her shoulder as she walked over to the bed.

  “Michael.” Adam said his name like a command and Mick took two steps until he was right in front of Adam. Waiting. “Naked.”

  Mick preened for both of them as he got rid of his clothes and came back to where he’d been standing in front of Adam.

  “Normally I’d use some arm binders on you,” Adam told Mick. “And I will. But not tonight. Arms up.” Adam adjusted the bar so Mick wouldn’t get hurt if he struggled.

  Mick’s pupils got so big Adam was helpless to do anything but lean in and kiss him, tasting all that delicious anticipation.

  He then held out his wrists so Adam could put the cuffs on. “You’re so beautiful when you’re bound,” Adam murmured as he adjusted, making sure the fit was snug.

  Mick’s cock was rock hard already, which pleased Adam greatly. And it got even harder when Adam had finished connecting the cuffs to the carabiner and then to the bar itself, slowly raising it until Mick’s arms were above his head, but his shoulders and general positioning were safe.

  “Wow,” Jessi breathed out as she looked Mick up and down.

  Already Mick’s eyes had gone glassy, which told Adam how much he needed this.

  Adam had been pushing Mick’s limits for the last month, testing out his pain tolerance. Seeing what he liked and didn’t. Hell, figuring out what he liked too. Adam never really thought about delivering pain the way he did with Mick.

  At first he wasn’t sure if he could give Mick as much as he needed. And truth be told, Mick would be racing and brawling until he was ninety most likely. But it would be Adam who burned off the worst of it.

  “I’m not done,” he whispered to Mick as he held out the silver in his palm. “These clamps fit around your piercings best. And you turn it to tighten like this.”

  Mick gasped when Adam danced his fingertips up to his left nipple and then fit the square clamp over the bar and then the nipple just right and began to tighten.

  Adam followed with the right nipple, getting the clamp in place before picking up the flicker whip. He snapped it through the air and Jessi moaned at the sound.

  Their sweet angel didn’t much like pain, but she loved watching Adam deliver it to Mick. In her lap, she twisted her fingers together, wanting to touch but not having permission yet.

  “Do you see how she looks at you, Mick?”

  Mick focused on Jessi.

  “Like you’re the most beautiful and sexy thing she’s ever seen,” Adam said as he moved around behind Mick, trailing the tail over his shoulders.

  “You both are,” Jessi said.

  Mick grunted.

  Adam chose the flicker whip because the sound was one of his favorites, but also because he could increase the pain and sensation as they went along to a very vicious sting. One he’d been feeling more and more that Mick needed.

  It would take him further than they’d gone so far, but still within parameters Adam was confident in.

  He pet down Mick’s back, pressing a kiss to the space between his shoulder blades.

  And then he struck. Three quick flicks of his wrist, each successively harder until pretty red welts rose.

  “You need to tell me if your shoulders hurt. The bar should be set just right, but I can’t fix what I don’t know about. Get me? I’ll hurt you, baby, but I don’t want the wrong kind of pain.”

  Mick whimpered a little, but nodded.

  “Jessilyn, would you like to help me?”

  Adam alternated between strikes in the air and those against Mick’s ass and the backs of his thighs.

  “Y-yes,” she managed to say. The power of it surged through Adam. That he could affect them both this way was a gift.

  “When I tell you, you can kiss, bite, lick him wherever you like as long as you like or until I tell you to stop,” Adam told her.

  Mick groaned, the sound ragged with need.

  Jessi nodded, the smile on her face a temptation like no other.

  “Go on then.”

  Jessi leaned forward and licked up Mick’s side from hip bone to nipple. He let out a shuddering breath, and she squeezed her thighs together. She blew over his nipple and when he made a sound she licked softly.

  The tension in Mick’s muscles seemed to bleed away a little more each time Adam’s flicker whip—a pretty name for something that made such a wicked sound—made contact.

  She found his lips and he fed on her mouth hungrily, his tongue dancing inside briefly, teeth catching her bottom lip as she pulled away.

  He was beautiful there. A little dazed, he bent forward as he watched Jessi. His arms were above his head, wrists all bound up in badass black leather cuffs.

  His skin gleamed with sweat and his cock was the hardest she’d ever seen it. Dark red, smeared with pre-come, balls tight against his body.

  “You make my mouth water,” she said as she dragged the pad of her thumb over the head of his cock.

  Adam made a sound that time and she basked in it for a moment as she brought her thumb up to lick the taste of Mick away.

  “Enough for now, angel,” Adam told her in a rusty voice.

  Mick’s moan this time was one of alarm and disappointment.

  Jessi sat back on her heels once more, licking her lips as she watched. Waiting to be allowed to touch Mick again. As she did, Adam slowly demolished all the impotent anger and pain Mick had built up over his family situation.

  Adam had used the term burn the pa
in away a few times, but when she saw it in his hands—took him in as he slowly and with total focus concentrated on what Mick needed from moment to moment as well as by the end—she understood.

  All the fighting and the high adrenaline stuff like racing and even dangerous stuff like multiple tours in Iraq were Mick’s way of punishing himself. But in Adam’s hands, the pain was a caress. It was a loving way to wash away all that loathing, all the toxic, vile stuff his family made him feel.

  She loved them both so much right at that very moment she thought she’d burst like those stars she’d seen when they’d been up at the cabin the weekend before.

  Mick gave over to the bright, nearly overwhelming sensation each strike of the flicker whip gave him. He fought it at first and then gorged himself on it until it threatened to be too much.

  And each time, Adam adjusted so Mick could find equilibrium. The sweet ache of it, the sharp, precise edge that took him three steps from pleasure and into pain, where he felt as if he were flying.

  That perfect physical/chemical balance that was better than any substance he’d ever used. All the poison turned to ash in the wake of each searing sting against his skin.

  And then Jessi’s mouth on him. Her hands. The things she said with such dirty sincerity were a palate cleanser. As Adam knew they would be.

  She teased him with her kisses and licks, gave him an anchor so he could float and not worry about drifting away.

  Then Adam would tell her to stop and she’d settle back to watch once more.

  Over and over again, interspersed pleasure and comfort along with the pain. Mixing in a way that felt a lot like magic.

  This was why he submitted to Adam. No other thing he’d done burned away all the poison the way Adam did. Mick began to feel renewed, revived, even as his body continued to fill with pleasure.

  “Again, angel.” Adam reached around and pulled the clamps free and a wave of sensation swirled through Mick, rendering him light-headed for a few moments.

  Mick gasped as she got to her hands and knees and crawled his way, her tongue darting out to lick around the crown of his cock, taking him in a little deeper each time.

  His head hung forward as he watched his cock disappear into her mouth over and over again. So pretty he never wanted it to end.

  So good it had to pretty damned soon.

  Adam moved to the side, tossing the flicker whip to the night table.

  He lay down next to Jessi and took over, saying to Mick, “You were so good, let me reward you for that.”

  Adam swallowed Mick’s dick, getting it nice and wet with spit. One hand cupped his balls just right as he got a good, hard rhythm set.

  He knew Mick didn’t have any use for subtle at that point. Knew Mick needed to climax.

  Adam sucked hard, much harder than Jessi usually did. A shouted grunt came from Mick’s lips as orgasm claimed him, digging in with claws so sharp Mick struggled against his cuffs as his back arched and he stuffed as much of his cock down Adam’s throat as he could.

  Moments later Adam freed Mick from the cuffs, massaging his shoulders and biceps as he helped settle Mick facedown on the bed.

  Mick wanted to say a lot of things, but none of them seemed to come to mind. So he smiled and slurred that he loved them both.

  Adam kissed Mick and whispered in his ear, “You might want to move your head so you can watch me fuck Jessi.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Mick managed as he turned to catch sight of Jessi. “So pretty. Hi, angel.”

  “You sound high.”

  “He’s high on all sorts of body chemicals. And from your beauty of course.” Adam pulled her to her feet on the other side of the bed—now that he’d gotten rid of his pants and was there in all his naked glory—and bent her forward. “You told me earlier that you had a fantasy about me fucking you from behind. Well here you go.”

  Adam shoved her forward and then grabbed a handful of her hair while he slammed into her with one stroke.

  Jessi wheezed the F word, which made Mick laugh.

  Adam fucked her in hard, slow thrusts. Her tits would bounce and then he’d wait, pull back, and thrust again.

  Jessi squirmed and Mick knew she’d be hot and tight inside, pulling at him, clamping her muscles around Adam’s cock to lure him back in.

  There was no denying her allure. No denying whatever urgency that took hold once you were deep inside.

  Mick saw the moment Adam fell, the moment of no return. He hitched Jessi’s leg up, changing his angle and giving him access to her clit and that pretty hoop they both loved so much.

  Her moan went very deep and guttural, and Mick’s cock thought very hard about reviving.

  “Do you know what a temptation you are? Hmm? Your mouth on his cock. He needed it so bad. I needed it so bad,” Adam snarled.

  “And now you both have it,” she said as she pushed back against him.

  Mick couldn’t tear his attention away unless the house was on fire. The two of them so raw together. Adam ran covetous hands over her skin as the backs of Mick’s thighs had settled into a dull burn. The kind that seemed to throb like a heartbeat.

  The kind he loved.

  “You first,” Adam insisted, and whatever he did, Jessi responded by a surprised yelp of pleasure and then a gasp as it got her pretty close pretty fast.

  “No fair,” she said, panting, “I was already close watching you work on Mick.”

  “Fair? What’s fairer than all of us coming so hard we see stars?” Adam asked.

  Jessi cried out, reaching to tangle her fingers with Mick’s as Adam drove her over the edge and followed right after her.

  Adam pulled out and helped her back up to the bed. “Be right back. I’m getting arnica and some ice. You’re going to bruise, most likely, but that should help some and also with the pain.”

  Jessi helped Mick turn his head toward the right end of the bed and got settled. “You can be in the middle tonight. It’s a good place for highest levels of snuggle.”

  He needed that. And there they were, giving it to him. The impulse to punch something was gone. He was lazy and happy and totally relaxed.

  “Life is pretty fuckin’ sweet,” Mick said as Adam came back with the arnica and ice.

  CHAPTER

  Twenty-one

  I can’t believe you downplayed how good you are,” Jessi told Carmella as she looked at some work she’d just given her.

  Carmella smiled, pleased. “Oh I just mean I’m not hand sewing and hand beading and making ballet and opera costumes. I’m pretty handy with most sewing jobs. You’re like a Jedi master. How’d you end up doing this anyway?”

  Jessi laughed. “I tried a lot of jobs after I got out of high school. I went to college but decided it wasn’t for me after two years. Worked at my dad’s veterinary practice. He was pretty bummed I didn’t want to take after him. Charlie, that’s my older sister, and Leif, he’s the youngest son, both work with him, though. My mom runs the office.”

  “How many siblings do you have?” Carmella asked as they headed over to the coffee pot in Jessi’s studio.

  “Three. Samuel is the oldest. He’s a cameraman. He works for the BBC in crazy war-torn places that make my mother pray a lot. He’s fearless and super smart. Then Charlie, who is the oldest daughter and also a vet, then Leif—surprise—a vet too. I’m the youngest. So they’re all super achievers. And I was average. Anyway, because I did my dad’s marketing and was pretty decent at it, I got a job in sales and marketing for a hospital. Which enabled me to luck into a job doing the same in Portland, only for a regional producer of plays, musical theater, and ballet.”

  “This was after you’d broken up with Mick and Adam?” Carmella didn’t have pity in her tone, only curiosity.

  “Yes. I’d been looking for a new job for a while. I wouldn’t have considered Portland at all before the breakup because they both lived here. So anyway. Through that whole time I was sewing and started doing more work on the side to do custom pieces.
Weddings, prom, that sort of thing. After a while, people in the industry began to come to me and see my work and I lucked into getting work up here, which is where I wanted to be and had been working at doing. Now I’m here. My profit is pretty much nothing, but I’m not in the red and I think if things continue to go well, I can have an actual career doing this. Which is pretty damned cool.”

  “That is pretty damned cool. And you’re in love.”

  Jessi nodded. “Truth be told I’ve loved them both for a long time. I wanted to move on, believe me. But in the end, we came back together when we were ready. I truly think that.”

  “I bet this threesome thing isn’t for amateurs. I mean, in a having to deal with public opinion way. Not sex.” Carmella groaned and put her hands over her face a moment.

  “I know what you mean. And yes, that’s what I mean. I don’t know that I’d have been able to deal with all this stuff, the issues with family, four years ago. I was a different person then.”

  “I definitely think there are times—setbacks—where it’s dark while you’re going through it, but eventually you figure out why you had to survive that dark time. I hate that you had to be so sad. But I’m so happy for you now,” Carmella said.

  “I like you, Carmella. You have such wonderful energy.” Jessi hugged her. “I’m so glad I know you.”

  “That’s a nice thing to say. Thank you. I’m glad I know you too.”

  Jessi moved past Carmella over to the worktable, where pieces of a bodice lay. The early November day was clear and sunny, so she had the blinds up to let the sun in while she worked.

  “I bet that guy got locked out of his house or something,” Jessi said, tipping her chin toward the dark gray sedan that’d been parked at the end of the block. “He’s been out there an hour already.”

  “Or he’s waiting for someone. My mother used to be late all the time. So I’ve been him a time or two. Waaaaaaiting for someone to show up somewhere.”

  “Probably.” Jessi snorted. “Will you be at PJ and Asa’s tonight?”

  “Yes. Duke just texted me a few minutes ago to say he was already there. Asa’s got four or five racing channels, how that’s possible I don’t know. But they love to sit over there for hours, staring at the television and eating stuff. PJ and I are so happy to have you around.”