“The way I did when we were together.” She stared at the tree. It had to be at least twelve feet tall. Getting the lights hung on the top branches must have been a bastard of a job. “Free. Up for anything. Sexual, for Christ’s sake.”
“Well, you’re here with the two of us, naked. That sounds sexual to me.” He wiggled her booted foot until she gave in and looked at him. He smiled. “I think hooking up with us is pretty kinky by anyone’s standard.”
Her laugh was short and less than convincing, even to her own ears.
“Yeah, I started out strong, but I’m not exactly finishing with a bang.” She rolled her eyes at his snicker, but giggled too. The lighter moment felt like a godsend. “Don’t even go there.”
“Since that’s exactly where we want to go, let’s figure it out. What’s not working for you?”
She looked down at her toes. Her hair was falling in her face so she stuck her lower lip out and tried to blow up to get it off her forehead. She didn’t know how to answer.
“Callie.”
“I don’t know!” She almost wailed out the words and then started to laugh at her own overacting. “My body sure as shit is ready to go.” She blushed, sitting there still naked and wet.
“But your head’s not in the game.”
“Don’t you talk to me like I’m one of your beloved Bulls,” she said, knowing that during basketball season Gabe saw sports metaphors like a conspiracy theorist saw black government helicopters. Everywhere. Gabe smiled at her and lifted his hands in the air, palms up. Mea culpa, his shrug said.
“Your, uh, conscious awareness isn’t fully engaged in the present moment?”
“Now you sound like an asshole.”
“And you’re an asshole for noticing.” He reached out and grabbed her around her waist, bracing his feet flat on the thick shag and pulling her between his legs “Get over here.”
She stiffened her spine for a moment as her entire back pressed up against him. Gabe’s cock, only semi-hard now, pressed against the top of her ass. After a moment, she realized that it was actually easier like this. She didn’t have to look him in the eye.
Also, let’s face it, your body is totally comfortable with the naked-in-Gabe’s-lap scenario.
Before she had time to think, she leaned back into him, draping her arms over his knees as they cradled her. His hands rubbed her shoulders gently. Nothing sexual about his touch now, it merely comforted.
“This is just one way to play. And we like it. Especially with you. It’s fucking hot to see you on your knees between us, your mouth open for my cock.” She felt her heartbeat start to pick up, hearing his words. As she’d said, her body saw no problem with the sexytimes. “But it’s not the only way. Not even close. So tell me what was going on in your head. Sound it out.”
She inhaled deeply and let it out in a long, slow controlled breath. She could do this.
“You know I wanted this. I don’t know if it was your idea or mine when we were emailing, but as soon as the idea was put out there, I was fucking in. In, in, in. It’s been…difficult.” She ducked her chin here, even though she knew Gabe couldn’t see her face. “Getting my groove back, you could say. Things were…not good. With John.”
“Now that guy was an asshole.”
“Shut up.” She pinched some of Gabe’s leg hair and yanked on it, smirking when he yelped. “He was not. He was the wrong guy for me, that’s for damn sure, but you know how I am about admitting I’ve made a mistake.”
“I heard that happened once in Berlin back in the war, but you killed everyone in the room, so there’s no proof.”
“Ha ha. Yeah, he was the wrong guy, but I couldn’t have the right one, and I guess I was damn well gonna have somebody. Even if it turned out he didn’t really want me. At all… I thought it was just us falling into a rut, getting bored with each other. When I finally told him I thought we should divorce—” She cleared her throat, suddenly finding it hard to swallow. “He told me that he’d never been that sexually attracted to me. That sex with me was boring. That…messes with your head.”
“Holy shit.” Gabe wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. “You know that’s bullshit, right? Want me to kick his ass?”
“If I wanted that, I’d do it myself. And yes, I know it’s bullshit. I just haven’t been able to get his voice out of my head yet. Told you. Wrong guy.”
“Who was the right guy?” His voice was a rumble in her ear that vibrated in her chest and warmed her skin.
“Seriously?” She twisted her head around in surprise before she could stop herself. Gabe’s face was right there, inches away, his eyes finding hers in the dim Christmas tree light. “You were.”
“Well, shit.” He looked confused. “You had me, Callie. You were the one who ended things, remember?”
“I know. Because I didn’t really have you to start with, Gabe. I loved being with you, felt so alive and open to everything. At first. It was like someone turned on the lights for the first time. It was exciting and hot and everything I wanted.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming.”
She shrugged. “But it’s one thing to kiss girls in a bar, or fool around with someone with you. When I went home with that girl though, and you were happy for me? It made me feel shitty.”
“I’m sorry.” His arm snugged under her breasts as he hugged her to him. “You seemed really excited. It was fun to watch you.”
“I was. Turned out it really bothered me when you didn’t care that I slept with that girl.”
“You knew I wouldn’t though. And you were coming home to me.” His body curved around hers, but his voice was wary.
“Yeah, well, I’m not saying it made sense, but I wanted you to want me enough to be bothered if I went off with someone else. Without you.”
“You know I’m not like that.” The words were quiet, soft. She rubbed the palm of her hand over the crisp hair on his forearm and wished she could fix this for him.
“I know. I knew.” The aftermath of his horrible ex had only been a few years behind him when they’d first met. “I’m sad to hear that hasn’t changed, actually.” She looked up at him again. “I wish you felt like you deserved someone for your very own.”
“That’s not what works for me.” He kissed the tip of her nose, then laughed under his breath. “I saw her a few years back actually.” He didn’t have to say who.
“And?”
“And nothing. I didn’t talk to her. It was in the lobby of the MCA. She was yelling at some poor kid in a navy blazer. Gold buttons. Strangled by his tie. About twelve. If that was her son, I feel sorry for him. She still sucks. And not in the good way.”
She sighed and dropped her head back down, ignoring his attempted joke. Her shoulders sagged. “You know it’s messed up that you’ve let her take away this whole part of your life, right?”
“It is what it is. This keeps me happy. We’ve all got our own fucked-up ways of handling the shit we’re dealt. So, given that, you know what would have been a better thing to do all those years ago if something bothered you?”
She tucked her chin even lower.
“Mention it?”
“You think? So I’m not a possessive guy. I’m also not an asshole. If something like that was important to you, we could have talked about it. Figured it out. I’m not going to change how I fuck or love for anyone, but you can factor things in, you know? If you needed me to be there with you when you experimented in order to feel good about it, then why didn’t you just say so?”
“Because I was twenty-three and an idiot.” It felt like time travel, having this conversation that should have happened so many years ago. Something tight and hard in her stomach loosened and started to fade. How had she ever been that young? Sighing, she shook her head at her own stupidity and gave Gabe’s knees a squeeze. “And you were supposed to know without me telling you. You were perfect in every other goddamn way.”
His chest shook with laughter behind her shoulders. “N
ow I know you don’t mean that.”
Callie tilted her head back and looked up at him. She could see the heavy stubble coming in along his jaw and had a sudden flash of what it would feel like scraping against her sensitive bits. She slid her hands down Gabe’s shins and back up again, vaguely aware that the way she trailed her fingertips through the hair on his legs was not quite as neutral as her most recent touches.
Trying not to overthink it, she pressed a close-mouthed kiss to the edge of his jaw.
“Well, I thought you were. Then.”
He squeezed her again, one of his hands drifting a little lower on her stomach, the other bumping up against the bottom of her breast.
“I heard what you did there.” Skimming one hand over her chest, he brushed her nipple and the sensitive skin of her breast before sliding his hand up to wrap loosely around her throat. The pressure made her aware of every breath, and created a delicious tension when she swallowed by reflex against the restraint. Everything he touched tingled. “I’m not perfect, Callie, but I’m here. With you this time. If you still want to play.”
She tried to block out the clamoring of her body—yes yes yes, fucking yes, play now!—and figure out what she actually wanted here. One conversation with her ex-boyfriend wasn’t a magic therapy session that wiped out every bad feeling she’d held onto for all these years.
On the other hand, she felt pretty friendly towards Gabe right now. Not head over heels crazy about him like when she was young. More of a, “Hey, you’re really a good guy and you turn my crank like nobody’s business,” kind of thing. And John’s voice in her head was muted, at least for the moment. Maybe this could work.
She pressed her face against his neck and felt his pulse beneath her lips. Opening her mouth and sucking on his skin for a moment brought heat to the surface. He tasted warm and rich on her tongue. The sudden urge to bite him nearly overwhelmed her, and she had to pull away in order to resist.
“I’m not saying no.”
“Not saying no isn’t the same as a yes.” He returned the oral assault, licking up the outside of her ear like a cat and nipping gently at her earlobe. His breathing was loud and harsh so close up. “If you want this, I need the yes first.”
She heard the gentle ultimatum, and could imagine what would come next at her single word reply. Gabe wanted clarity, as much for his sake as for her own, she knew. He would want to be sure of her enthusiasm, while at the same time confirming that she knew his parameters for sex hadn’t changed. She pictured it, walking away later that night or in the morning, knowing she had no more of Gabe now than she had at twenty-three, and tried to imagine how that would feel. Saw herself walking on pre-dawn streets with the light rising in the east, bundled up in her coat, bare knees cold in the winter air. Heading home to catch a catnap before heading back in to work. Wondering what she might try next…
That made a pretty good picture.
Pressing her ass back against Gabe’s cock, she felt him growing harder against her.
“Yes.”
He squeezed her throat for a moment, then released. His other hand slid low enough to tangle in her pubic hair and brush lightly against her pussy lips.
“Good girl.”
Her back arched and she dropped her head off his shoulder, curving back over his arm as she went from zero to sixty in his lap in the turn of a moment.
“Ahh,” she heard herself moan as his fingers penetrated her slowly and then withdrew, pulling slick wetness with them up to her clit where he circled in a slow tease.
“And Kate?” He palmed her breast again and scraped his nails against the side of her ribcage, almost, almost tickling. Callie felt every gasp of air like it was on fire as he stroked her in time with her rapid breaths. “Your call. She’ll understand either way, you know.”
She could hardly think. Her brain was clouded with wanting more, wanting everything, right fucking now. But she remembered Kate. Kate, as pushy and commanding as Gabe. And Kate, still and submissive beneath Callie’s hands on her breast.
“Kate stays.”
Gabe grabbed her chin and took her mouth with his, pushing past her teeth with his tongue, fucking her mouth as his fingers thrummed against her clit until she was gasping. Her heartbeat, her pussy, her spine, everything pulsed with heat and an unstoppable, building need. Sounds poured out of her. Pleading, begging sounds that spilled through the air until she was sure Kate could hear her from across the enormous room.
Gabe stopped touching her.
“What?” She looked up at him, dazed, as he wrapped an arm around her middle and hauled her to her feet. Turning her around by the shoulders, he pointed her towards the corner where his platform bed loomed in the darkness; the Christmas tree light glow died out halfway across the floor. The sudden smack of his hand on her ass stung, but cleared her head for a moment.
“God, your body.” He raked her up and down with his gaze. Comfortable enough that she’d forgotten she was still wearing her boots, and only her boots, Callie rode the burn of his hands on her skin, cocking her ass at him as she looked back over her shoulder.
“Yes?”
“Get on the bed. Kate!”
“Stay or go?” Kate’s voice was disembodied in the dark, raspy and oddly cheerful. She was clearly okay either way.
“You’re up, darlin’. Get over here.”
“Sweet!” Her footsteps echoed as she crossed the cement floor.
“Wait.” Callie’s word stopped Gabe in place. He stood relaxed, his hands hanging at his sides—ready for whatever she had to say. “I need it to be different than what we were doing earlier. I don’t think I can be Callie in the middle like that right now. I mean, I don’t care about being between you physically, but not the teasing. Maybe later, but I need something…”
“Not so submissive?” He finished her sentence like he knew her own thoughts. “You want what you had when you first started all this. You want to be the one doing the seducing.”
“I think so. Yes.” She nodded and bit her lip.
“Baby girl, we can so work with that.” He slung an arm over her shoulders and walked with her on a path to intercept Kate. The three of them met in the middle of the floor and Callie laughed as she saw Kate unzipping her own pants while she strolled over. She walked right into the bodies of Gabe and Callie where they stood together, wrapped an arm around each of their waists, and lifted her mouth.
Callie was the first one to kiss her, stroking her cheek and licking her way into Kate’s mouth, one hand sliding up the back of her neck to hold her head still. When she pulled her mouth back for a moment, Gabe leaned down and kissed Kate deeply while Callie watched.
When he stopped, she felt the thick length of his hard cock bumping into her hip, pressed between her body and Kate’s stomach. She already missed the stretch of it in her mouth, and got distracted for a moment by the thought of dropping to her knees one more time and sucking him hard and fast.
Luckily, as he no doubt would say if asked, Gabe’s head was definitely in the game.
“Good news.”
Kate licked her lips and slid her hand down Callie’s waist until her fingers scraped the crack of her ass. “I’ve always liked good news.”
“Callie’s gonna tell us what she would have done if she’d won at cutthroat.”
She rose up high on her toes as Kate’s hand slid between her legs and pressed against her slick pussy, stopping to pinch the edge of one of her lips and sending a sweet stinging pain shooting up her spine.
“And we’re gonna do what she wants. Whatever she wants.”
He stepped away from her and grabbed Kate by the hand, keeping her at his side. He slung an arm around her and Kate leaned her head against his shoulder.
“Come and get us, girl. We’ll fuck you any way you like.”
“Will we ever.” Kate traced a pattern on Gabe’s stomach. When he tensed his abdominal muscles in an effort to keep still, she dropped her hand to his cock and stroked him with her fist, s
taring Callie in the eyes the entire time. Callie didn’t know where to look—at Kate’s face with her sleepy, sexy eyes, or Gabe’s cock, with the pre-cum leaking from the tip and shining its length as Kate dragged it down over the head.
For a moment, Callie froze. Her teeth started to chatter and her fingertips and toes turned to ice. This gorgeous couple stood in front of her, all sexy smiles and busy hands, just waiting for her to want them. And she did. She wanted them both so intensely that she ached with it. It was still hard, though. Eleven years of being with someone who didn’t want to get in your pants was a total mindfuck.
Then Kate winked at her. And blew her a kiss.
And that ball of ice in her stomach that Gabe had started melting with his lack of bullshit finally dwindled to a chilly prickle of nerves and regret for old decisions, then vanished with a snap in a sudden wave of heat.
These were her people.
And she was going to do exactly what she wanted with them.
She grinned and advanced on Kate, who stood under Gabe’s arm. Putting her hands on Kate’s shoulders, she pushed her free from Gabe’s grasp and walked her backwards toward the bed, steering her as the other woman laughed and tried not to trip. Thank god they were close. When Kate’s thighs hit the elevated edge of the mattress, Callie gave her a push and tipped her onto the casually wrinkled, dark-colored duvet. She grabbed the hems of Kate’s jeans and yanked hard, while Kate lifted her ass to let the pants slide off.
Kate let her legs fall open in front of Callie and slid her hands up past her own breasts, stretching her arms above her on the bed, one hand wrapped around the other wrist.
Callie put her knee on the edge of the bed, only to be stopped by Gabe before she could climb up and straddle those lace-bikini-clad hips.
“No more ducking out, girl.”
“What?” She’d lost track of anything except Kate’s lean form stretched out in front of her, the edges of her limbs outlined by the faint, faraway Christmas tree lights.
Callie, Unwrapped Page 8