by Gemma Snow
“I’ll admit to being glad we didn’t come home to a houseful of horses,” he said, stopping only when he got down to his boxer briefs, which were also soaked, not that she was looking. Lily handed him a towel, which he used to dry his chest, shoulders and arms. The light in the kitchen was dim, with the fireplace partially blocked by the island, but she could make out the gorgeous cords of muscles and the power in each of his motions, as he twisted with the towel.
“I’m just happy you came home at all,” she said, taking the towel out of his hands in a moment of madness and drying off his back. “What the hell happened out there?”
“Couple of elementary school kids on a field trip,” Micah put in. He reached for a towel from the stack and shook out his long hair, wiping it down. “Four of them went off exploring and didn’t come back. We found two before the storm hit.”
Lily paused in her motions and looked up at him. “And the others?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“Injured, but alive,” Dec replied, his voice low and full of emotion. “It’s harder for the dogs in the rain, but Rosie caught their scent near the edge of the river and we followed it about a mile and a half before we found them in a gully. One had a broken arm and my guess is the other had a concussion, but they’ll both be okay.”
“Are you both okay?” she asked. “Hungry? Cold? I can put something together for you.” And if that didn’t have a ring of domesticity to it, Lily would eat the wet towel in her hand.
“I just want to sit around the fire,” Micah said, tossing another wet towel to the floor, followed by his shirt. “And maybe enjoy the view with a little more light.”
At that, Lily looked down, belatedly remembering that no, she hadn’t ever gotten around to putting pants on after her own little jaunt in the storm. All at once, she was deeply, incredibly aware of both men’s gazes on hers, of the way the candlelight cut across two hard, muscled chests, of her own complete lack of self-control, and she knew that if she had any hope of any of this moving forward, or keeping her sanity, they were going to need to have this conversation and they were going to need to have it now.
She sighed, because the last thing she wanted was to throw this at them, after they’d spent the night rescuing school kids in the wild mountains of Montana, but she needed to know. They all needed to know the score.
“Can we talk?”
Chapter Eight
Dec and Micah exchanged grim expressions and Dec unlocked the gate for the puppies, letting the three humans out of the kitchen and closing it behind them. A six-pack was sitting on the counter and Micah swiped it, dropping it down on the coffee table before the fire. He unscrewed one and handed it to her, passing another to Dec then grabbing one himself, setting down on the chair closest to her.
“I have…feelings.” Rip off the Band-Aid, Lils. They were both watching her with such an intensity it was damned difficult to concentrate on anything other than the way their gazes made her feel, the heat climbing up her back, up her bare legs to the warm apex between her thighs—where she so craved their touch. “God, okay, this is complicated. I kissed both of you and…and I don’t regret it. In fact, I want more. Of it… I mean, not it, just…”
Micah put his hand on hers adding to the heat she already felt from Dec’s intense watch. “We know,” he said, his voice barely loudly enough for her to hear over the roar of the storm. “We, well, it’s not pretty, but we pretty much agreed to both pursue you, best man win, kind of deal.”
She tossed her hands up in frustration and paced over the fire. “That’s just the thing.” She divided a gaze between the two of them. “It’s not either or, it’s both and. I want both of you equally and this coming from a woman who hasn’t wanted anyone in over five years, so yeah, I’m a little confused.”
Tension simmered in the room, and Dec held out his hand, pulling her into his lap. He was still damp from the storm, but his skin was warm and his gaze warmer.
“You haven’t been with anyone since Daniel?” he asked, so much sympathy in his voice that it nearly broke her heart. But right now, right here, she didn’t want Daniel. For the first time in so, so long, she just wanted to be Lily. And she wanted to be happy.
Still, they deserved to know the truth of it. “I tried. There were a couple guys I dated here and there, but I couldn’t get over his loss, you know? It tied me down and made it impossible for me to open up, to anyone, physically or otherwise. So when I got here and found that I wasn’t just attracted to one man for the first time, but two—well, that’s what set me off the first night. It was too much all at once.”
“And now?” Micah asked, angling his large body closer to where she sat on Dec’s lap.
“And now all I can think about is how much I want to touch both of you, kiss both of you… God, there’s so much I want. But I’ve known from the beginning that you’re not into it the way Christian and Ryder are and I should have been more careful, so it’s on me.”
“Well, we don’t exactly have a lot of experience with things like this,” Dec admitted. His face was bathed in the glow of the fire, but she could still see a blush rising up his cheeks. It was amazing, that, how this powerful soldier, this warrior, was still able to blush. “I mean, we can try…I don’t know, what if we tried dating, right?” He spoke faster, the more into the idea he became. “Right, you could date us separately, do whatever depraved things you want to do to us separately and stuff, just to try it, see how it goes, right?”
She looked at him then back to Micah’ whose dark eyes betrayed none of what he was feeling.
“You’re going back to California at the end of all this, right?” Micah asked, careful and controlled. “Just so we know the rules.”
Slowly—and maybe it was slow because she felt a little hollow at the idea of returning home—Lily nodded.
“It’ll be a release,” she said. “An affair. Nothing permanent. We can agree on that. I mean, I don’t know how Maddy is handling two boyfriends—one is more than enough, thank you very much.” Even as she said it, Lily knew she was walking a precariously thin line to getting very accustomed to the two mountain men hotties in the woods company of the last few days.
“Speaking of handling,” Dec murmured, his voice low and his body tense against her back—God, this man’s ripped—“how’s that all gonna work?”
Her breath hitched. She’d been worried about having this conversation, but now that they’d cleared the air and they were all safe in the cabin and doused in firelight, she was able to focus on the two, mostly naked, very sexy men just below and before her.
“Well, see, I thought about that.” She tried to keep her voice steady, but Dec was trailing his fingers up and down her side and it was one hell of a distraction. “And I think that the only way this could work is if the first time is all together, ya know?” Her words wobbled just a little. Of course they did. She’d just told two hot-as-hell guys to give her a raunchy threesome. Even just the thought made her breasts tingle and her heart rate increase.
Dec throbbed just behind her ass and she nearly gasped aloud, trying for a deep breath and falling a mile off the mark. But, despite the physical reaction, she sensed his trepidation and when she looked over at Micah, he was watching his friend very closely.
“Is this going to be weird?” Micah asked, the words lingering a little too long. “Like, I won’t lie, Lils, Dec and I, we’re close, but not that close…”
She pursed her lips. Of course it was a lot to ask for the two best friends to just suddenly be okay with this, even though she’d known from the very beginning that it was going to be a hard-won victory.
“We don’t have to do anything you guys don’t want to do,” she said after a moment. “It’s not really fair of me to ask.”
“We’re not saying no.” Dec almost cut her off. “But we just have to… I dunno, lay some ground rules. For one, if you’re gonna compare cock sizes, you do it silently and to yourself, ya hear?”
Lily snorted. “What the
hell?”
Dec just shrugged. “Don’t you go denying that women compare cock sizes when everyone knows you do.”
She rolled her eyes. “I can guarantee that neither of you have anything to worry about in the cock size department.” Something in Micah’s eyes flared when she spoke, and she knew there was actually some chance of this really happening. He was her hold out, Lily was certain. Dec, especially since he was sitting behind her, his very well-proportioned cock against her ass, would be the easier of the two to convince.
“Micah, do you have any rules?” If she kept the conversation going, she might just be able to get them over to the dark side.
Micah shook his head, wet hair catching against his cheek, but it was a motion of confusion and not denial.
“I don’t know,” he said after a moment. “It’s just, sure I’ve seen Dec’s bare ass, way more than I’d care for, but never in a sexual way. It’s freaking me out a little, if you want the truth.”
Before Lily could respond, not that she had much idea as to what to say, Dec piped up, “Don’t lie, I know how you like it.” He put on a high, falsetto voice. “I want you, I need you, oh, baby, oh, baby.”
Lily turned around to face him, brows furrowed. “Did you just quote 10 Things I Hate About You? Like Health Ledger, Julia Styles, 10 Things I Hate About You?” Can this night get any more bizarre?
“I know you’re not afraid of me, but you have thought about me naked.” Dec waggled a brow and Lily just rolled her eyes.
“Obviously, I’ve thought about you naked,” she said. “That’s why we’re having this conversation. I’ve thought about both of you naked and I’ve decided that I want to do more than just think about it.” She paused. “I know it’s a lot to ask. This isn’t the kind of relationship you guys share and it’s…I don’t know, unfair. But I keep coming back to the idea of somehow choosing and that just seems impossible.”
Something in Micah’s eyes changed, and they grew somehow darker, more intense, a hint of the true power and mystery deep inside coming to the fore.
“You really feel that way?” he asked.
Lily nodded.
Dec kissed her shoulder, speaking quietly against her skin.
“That’s a lot to take in, Lily,” he said quietly, the depth and tone of his voice showing that he understood exactly how strongly she felt those words. “The way I see it, if the only way I’m going to touch you is with my best friend in the room, then all right.”
Relief and hope zinged through her. This, somehow, some crazy way, might just have a chance of working.
But these waters were new and needed navigating, so instead of turning around and kissing him like she wanted to do, she looked over at Micah, waiting for his response. His eyes didn’t hide anything anymore, but blazed, hot and demanding, and she knew for a fact that he was about to fulfill about ten of her top fantasies. And before she got the chance to say anything, to comment, maybe, on how she’d just made this all awkward as hell, Micah bent forward and captured her mouth.
Christ on a cactus, the man could fucking kiss. His touch was hot and demanding and not even a little of the soft sweetness she’d seen from him, both in kissing and otherwise. He wanted and she wanted to give him everything, wanted to tempt the beast and stoke the fire in his eyes. She moaned deep in her throat and rocked a little in Dec’s lap, which made his cock harden even more against his briefs and her thin scrap of cotton panties.
“Whatever you just did, Micah,” Dec said, his voice a low, growling noise, “do it again.” He bent low and murmured into her ear, “Rock against me, honey. Feels so good when you do that.” Given that her body burned with unspent desire that had been building essentially since the day she’d arrived, and the fact that she hadn’t shared an orgasm with a man in years, Lily felt pretty goddamned good right now, too.
She pressed back, enjoying the way Dec responded to her so naturally, feeling the throb of his desire in time with her crazed heart, and she had to pull back from Micah’s demanding kisses to collect herself.
“You all right?” Micah’s voice was rough and low and Lily took no small amount of pride in being the one who made him sound that way.
“Hell, yeah, I’m all right,” she said, eliciting a chuckle from both men. “I’m just a little overwhelmed, that’s all.”
“You’re thinking too much,” Dec murmured against her ear. “Why don’t you let us do all the thinking for you?” And in one fell swoop, he had her pinned below him on the couch, legs spread wide and feet on the floor. She didn’t need to look at either of them to enjoy the heated weight of their gazes and damn if that wasn’t hot and heady enough to make her practically come right then and there.
“But first…” Dec’s voice had a low chuckle to it, and Lily rolled her eyes before he even said a word. “I think we should lighten a little of the tension here.” And without hesitating a second, he dropped his briefs to the ground. “Ass as bare as the day I was born.” He waggled it a little and even Micah, who was trying so hard, bless him, couldn’t keep his lips from twisting into a manic grin.
“Jesus Christ, McCormick,” he said on a groan that was definitely a laugh. “Show her ’cause your pale ass just ain’t doing it for me.”
But they were laughing, and laughing was good because, just as Dec has intended, the tension in the room did let up a little, and some of the seriousness faded from Micah’s face.
Then Dec was back at her level, sliding his hands up her shirt, teasing across her belly and making her squirm and arch into his touch.
“Does my bare ass do it for you, Lils?”
She wanted to laugh, but he tweaked a nipple and it came out as a groan.
“You know it does, you tease,” she murmured. “Micah…”
It was his turn to laugh into a groan and he shook his head. “Greedy thing,” he murmured. “You just want two naked men waiting on your every whim.” Instead of stripping, like Dec, he slid down between her legs and her senses were shorting out because Dec had one hand wrapped around her breast and Micah was pressing heated kisses to the insides of her thighs.
“Fuck, so fucking good.” Her words came out a scramble of demands and desires, but she couldn’t stop them, couldn’t stop herself, because she wanted more, needed more.
“Keep telling us what you want, Lily,” Micah said, low and close to the skin right at the inside of her thigh. “It’s hot as fuck when you talk dirty and I want to hear more.”
And she didn’t have to fake it. “Kiss my pussy.” It came out more like a plea than a demand, but Micah didn’t seem to mind, because he moved his mouth across the cotton of her panties and pressed a heated kiss to her center over the fabric. She arched and Dec just pinned her down with one hand on her hip.
“Easy there, cowgirl,” he murmured. “The ride will be open all night long.”
She tried to laugh, but it came out as a desperate groan, as Micah bent lower and lapped at her wet, hot pussy, growing wetter and needier with every caress of his tongue over the fabric. She ran her hand through those thick, long strands of his hair and pulled tight, eliciting a groan from the depths of his chest that sounded more animal than man.
“I want to see you,” he demanded. Dec helped her sit up and peel the long-sleeved shirt off her body. It had felt so cool in the cabin before, when the heat had first started to drop after the power went out, but though she was nearly bare, Lily didn’t feel anything but burning hot and ready to burst.
“Panties,” Micah demanded. “Now.” His intensity should have scared her, but instead it made her nipples pebble to hard peaks and she had to swallow hard.
“You like being told what to do, don’t you, honey?” Dec asked, twisting his fingers around one of her nipples as Micah, clearly impatient of waiting for her to do it, pressed her legs together and pulled her panties down, tossing them off to the side.
“I do,” Lily admitted. “It…turns me on.”
“Say it,” he murmured, his voice no longer fi
lled with humor or false charm, but deep and carnal and needy as her own. “Tell us what it makes you feel.”
“Wet.” She struggled against the pleasure, bucking hard when Micah ran a finger down her slit and Dec held her in place. Then he stopped. Fine, she’d play their game. It certainly wouldn’t be any kind of hardship. “It makes my pussy wet and my nipples swollen and…I want to feel filled.”
Dec wrapped his hand around her cheek, sliding his fingers across her neck just enough to pinch, and the small bite of pain doubled all the insane pleasure.
“So sweet, so soft,” he murmured, each word dripping hot with desire. “I bet you’re going to feel amazing wrapped around my cock. I bet you’ll come the second you get something inside you. Isn’t that right?”
She tried to shake her head, because she needed to have some dignity through this whole thing, right, but then Micah slipped one finger between her folds and her breath caught in her chest and she froze, hovering right at the edge of her pleasure, until he slipped in another finger and began stroking and Lily felt that rising pressure and heat of her oncoming release and Dec reached out and plucked her nipple, hard, and Lily did come, right then and there, all over Micah’s mouth and fingers. Her body exploded with pleasure, practically catching flame as she rode Micah’s mouth, rocking back into Dec’s throbbing cock with each new wave of lust that racked her body.
After a moment, she came down from her high, all too aware of the hard, throbbing dick pressed against her ass and the way that Micah’s jeans strained where he was clearly so ready for her.
“So fucking sexy when you come,” Dec muttered. “I wanna feel you around me the next time you lose control. Do you want that, honey? Tell us.”
She was having a hard time thinking, let alone talking, but she managed to stand up on shaking feet, to grab the blanket beside her on the couch and spread it before the fire, just a few feet from the beautiful sparking light that would allow her to see both of these men in all their naked glory.