by Ophelia Bell
“Always. You guys are what make me whole. I had my team to distract me this past year, but I’m still a rookie to them. None of them know anything about my life, outside the game anyway, and they’d never replace the two of you. I want you back. Both of you.”
They pulled into a small parking lot of an older building in Georgetown with well-kept landscaping decorating the exterior. If everything went well with Kat, maybe Ben would be living here soon too. He had to remain optimistic, because he couldn’t imagine any other outcome at this stage. The prospect of having to endure another second of his life without both her and Andre in it threatened to sink him into the darkness that he’d barely managed to keep at bay over the past year. Andre had had football to keep him sane. Ben had been distracted by his drive to finish his degree, refusing to spend precious energy on anything but that goal. He hoped Kat had found something to help her stay sane through it all, but if Andre’s assessment told him anything it was that Kat had fared far worse than either of them.
And it was his fault.
They snuck through the front door as another tenant exited and made their way up the wide staircase. The apartment building itself was well lit and brightly decorated, in spite of its age, but Ben barely noticed the decor. The closer they got to Kat’s door, the more he dreaded what they would find when they got to her.
6B. The number loomed in front of him and Ben stood paralyzed. Finally Andre reached past him and knocked.
Ben thought he heard music emanating through the door, and voices. Andre knocked again, and a second later the music quieted. The door rattled as the locks were disengaged and his heart lurched as it swung inward.
“Well, fuck me,” Kat said.
Ben struggled to even give her a weak smile, as surprised as he was by the sight that greeted him. She was a mess, true enough. Her dark hair was sticking out in every direction, teased up from sleep, which seemed odd considering the lateness of the day. And she was dressed only in a rumpled blue and white striped chambray shirt. A man’s shirt, he observed abstractly. In fact, now that he gave her another once-over, she had the appearance of that perfect sexy mess that he loved, a look she only had right after being thoroughly fucked.
“I suppose you want to come in, huh, brother mine? Hey, Andre,” she added almost as an afterthought. “You’re a little late, so don’t mind the mess, or the man.”
Mess was an understatement. Her place was littered with clutter, barely a square foot of floor was visible beneath clothes and magazines and general detritus. Oddly enough her kitchen was spotless.
And there was a half-dressed man lounging on the sofa.
Ben and Andre made their way carefully into the living room and managed to find a somewhat clear space of floor where they could stand near her fireplace.
“It’s good to see you Kitty Kat,” Andre said. Ben caught him looking pointedly at the man on the sofa. “You plan on introducing us to your friend?”
Kat made a dismissive noise and flapped her hand as she headed to the fridge. “That’s just Derek.”
Derek snorted and stood. He reached out a hand to Andre. “Derek Campbell. She’s not the most hospitable person this time of day, sorry for that.”
Andre shook the man’s hand, his knuckles turning pale with the pressure he exerted. “Andre Kingston,” he said in a distinctly menacing voice.
Ben was sure he heard Derek’s bones cracking within Andre’s grip.
Derek’s face went pale, his eyes filled with both surprise and pain. He glanced at Ben for a moment, his expression almost plaintive. Andre finally released him and Derek shook his hand, flexing his fingers and wincing.
“Wow, ah … that’s quite a grip. I should’ve recognized you, sorry for that. I don’t suppose I could get your autograph?”
Andre just stared at Derek until the man wilted and sank back down onto the sofa muttering something that sounded like, “nevermind, forget I asked.” Ben knew exactly how withering those blue eyes could be when Andre got it into his head to be pissed, which was rare.
Kat trotted back into the room, her lithe gait hopping gracefully over the mess, and handed them each a fresh beer. She hauled an armload of what looked like half-folded laundry off an armchair and disappeared with it. “Have a seat,” she said when she came back, pushing Ben toward the chair.
He hated the utter lack of emotion in her reactions, and hated even worse the cocky look on Derek’s face.
“How do you know my sister?” Ben asked, leaning his elbows on his knees and clutching his beer.
“Through work. We’re both interns for Congressman Greeby, thanks to my dad. I didn’t know she had a brother.”
The name finally registered. Campbell. The Campbells were old family friends, but Ben hadn’t seen Derek since the two were kids. He hadn’t particularly liked him then, either.
“Stepbrother, actually,” he said, thinking how much he’d really like to punch Derek and throw him out the window.
“Right, that’s cool. So what was it like growing up with our little spitfire here? She’s something else, isn’t she?”
“You have no idea,” Ben said, gritting his teeth and taking a long swig of beer.
“No seriously, I’d love to hear some stories.”
Ben glanced past Derek to Kat, who had taken up a spot on a barstool a few feet behind Derek, watching the proceedings with a demented sort of glee. Her eyes were slightly glazed from alcohol, but she seemed to be having the time of her life. He was reminded of Christmases when they were younger. He’d always dreaded opening gifts from Kat, but their parents made him do it anyway. Kat had gotten off on seeing him squirm, but she’d never known how much he secretly loved the gifts even though they embarrassed him to have to open in mixed company.
“Oh yeah? Here’s a story,” Ben began, keeping his eyes on Kat’s. “Once upon a time there was a little girl named Kat who thought she’d torture her brother by fucking a loser. Little did she know that her brother realized it was just a cry for attention, and so he and his friend beat the loser to a bloody pulp and threw him out the window. She never fucked another loser after that. In fact, she appreciated what her brother had done so much she promised she’d get her shit together and behave like a human being again.”
“What the fuck?” Derek asked, but Ben ignored him, too smug over Kat’s reaction to give a crap about the idiot on the sofa.
Kat’s expression had soured. “Did you ever think that maybe Kat wouldn’t have been fucking losers to begin with if her asshole of a brother had been around to talk to all along?”
“Andre was here, Kat.”
“But you weren’t. You weren’t fucking available to me. I needed you both. All or nothing — do you know what that means?”
Andre’s deep voice cut in. “We’re with you now, Kitty Kat. It’s been that kind of year for us, too.”
“Except we weren’t fucking losers.” Ben said.
Kat rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at Andre. “You haven’t been around for the local tabloid drama, Ben. Andre, why don’t you tell him what you’ve really been up to in your free time? Getting caught in compromising positions with senators’ daughters? No, Ben. We’ve been surviving the only way we know how. Being with Andre just hurt too much without you there, too. And believe me, we did try.”
Ben turned to stare at Andre, who just shrugged and gave him a sad little smile. “She ain’t lying. It’s been a rough year.”
“So, let me get this straight,” Derek said, his eyes wide and his mouth opened in a giddy, stupid grin. “You’ve been fucking both these guys — one is your own stepbrother and the other’s the newest addition to the Redskins? Wow, you really are a dirty little whore, aren’t you?”
Ben didn’t even register his own movements to get to the guy. Before Derek could expel the laugh that was rising in his chest, Ben’s fist smacked into his nose with a satisfying crunch. He was gratified when Andre’s large hand clamped down on the back of Derek’s neck and hauled him toward the door like
he weighed nothing.
“What the fuck!” Derek bellowed.
“Oh, you’d rather I actually throw you out the window?” Andre offered, altering his direction slightly toward the window.
“No! No! Just let me the fuck go!”
Andre made it to the door and tossed Derek out, shirtless. “You breathe a word of this to anyone, I’ll find you, you worthless piece of shit.”
Chapter 4
When the reverberation of the slamming door finally subsided, Ben glanced at Kat and flexed his bruised fist.
“You got any ice? That fucker had a hard head.”
Kat sighed and sauntered around the bar into the kitchen. The shirt she wore just covered the tops of her thighs and it rode up, displaying the lush curve of her bottom when she reached into the freezer and rummaged around.
Ben wandered closer, fascinated by a tendril of ink that peeked out, curling down over the back of her hip and lower, like the sinister leg of a dark spider. When he was close enough, he reached out a hand and gently lifted the edge of the shirt to see.
Kat froze in place, frost-rimed air billowing out of the freezer around her while Ben’s fingertip traced the deep black pattern of the tattoo that graced the curve at the top of her right buttock and curled around and down over her hip. The design was a stylized trio of letters, merged together in a triangle. Their initials — B, K, and A — their ligatures long and curling, entwined with each other around a tiny red heart.
“It was the only way I could keep you two close,” she said. She pulled a bag of frozen peas out and leaned back to shut the door. Her movement pressed her backside into his palm and he let his hand slip lower, his fingers alive with the electric sensation of her smooth, hot skin.
“We’re here now,” Ben said.
She turned without pulling away from him and gripped his right hand, pressing the frozen bag against his knuckles.
“Why didn’t you at least call, Ben? Just once?” She stared up at him, her eyes wide and full of hurt. He’d caused that, and now he had to atone. But how?
“I was too angry for a long time. Not exactly my wisest period, I admit. And by the time it occurred to me what an ass I’d been, it was too late. Tell me, Kat, would you have answered if I’d called you in September?”
She lowered her gaze and squeezed his fingers where they still rested in her hand. “No, probably not. I’d already started my crazy bender of booze and hot men by then. I was too humiliated by my own bullshit to talk to anyone who cared about me for a long time. I still am, a little bit, but you’re here, so …”
He was baffled by the change in her. The cocky, irreverent Kat he remembered seemed chastened now.
“I never wanted to do this to you, Kat. I’m so sorry.”
“Anyway, I would understand if you don’t want me anymore. Hell, I can’t even stand myself most days.”
“Jesus, no,” he said, gripping her fingers and dislodging the frozen vegetables from the top of his hand. “I’ve never stopped loving you, not for a second since we were twelve.” He tugged her closer and wrapped both arms tightly around her, burying his face in her tangled curls. Christ, she smelled amazing. Her soft curves pressed against his torso as she sank into him like she’d never left.
She moaned into his throat when he slid his hands down her back and gripped her bare ass beneath the shirt. He turned and pressed her back against the fridge, tilting his head down to find her lips. She opened up eagerly, letting his tongue slide between her lips and greeting it with tentative touches of her own. Her fingers threaded into his hair and clawed lightly at his scalp and neck.
He couldn’t help but touch her everywhere. He’d dreamed about her so many times over the past year, but as vivid as the dreams had been, they paled in comparison to her flesh. The salty-sweet flavor of her skin delighted his tastebuds and her nipples tightened just like he remembered when his hand reached under her shirt and found her breast. He tugged the shirt aside and bent to tease one dark pink tip with his mouth, eliciting a lovely sigh.
Working his way lower, he unfastened the last few buttons of her shirt and slid down her body, landing on his knees with his mouth pressed against her navel.
Before he could slide his palms up to the apex of her thighs, she clamped her legs together and pushed him away.
“Stop. Don’t do that, please.”
He blinked up at her, then down at his target. She’d apparently given up on regular trims, but that didn’t bother him a bit. He just wanted her.
“What is it? I don’t care about this if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said, rubbing his fingers lightly through the dark triangle of curls between her thighs that he knew concealed an elaborate tattoo.
“Not that. Let me shower first, all right? And actually, as much as I’d love to get down and dirty right away, I really, really need to get the fuck out of this pigsty for awhile.”
“It’s because you were with him today, isn’t it?” Ben asked, standing up and caging her between his arms so she couldn’t move. “You’re embarrassed, aren’t you? Because you fucked that loser Campbell. Let me guess. You didn’t enjoy it, did you?”
She laughed. “He’s got about as much finesse in the bedroom as a gorilla. You guys never gave me bed hair this bad.” She pointed at the tangled mess that crowned her scalp.
He smiled and glanced at Andre who rested patiently in the armchair, watching them intently. He rose in response to Ben’s unspoken message. Both men were good at reading each other, particularly when it came to what they planned to do with Kat.
“Fine, then I won’t go down on you yet …” he began in a low voice, “but I think you need a reminder of what you’ve been missing before I let you out of my sight again, even for five minutes.”
He tugged her shirt wide open again and cupped her left breast, tracing the shape of the dragon tattoo that curved around the outside of her creamy flesh with his fingertips. Bending his head again, he took her nipple in his mouth and sucked hard.
Out of the corner of his eye, Andre loomed, his shoulder brushing against Ben’s as he moved in close and bent to kiss Kat. His dark hand cupped her other breast while their mouths tangled, then his face moved down alongside Ben’s to capture her other nipple between his full lips.
Ben heard a thump and a moan as Kat flung her head back against the fridge door.
He and Andre had the same thought, their hands sliding down her stomach and bumping against each other as they aimed for her pussy. Ben let his hand rest on her upper thigh, caressing her lightly while Andre delved deeper, teasing his fingers back and forth between her legs.
“So wet,” Andre murmured. “Need to fuck this sweet pussy. Missed you so much, Kitty Kat.” His voice was urgent and only semi coherent between his licking and sucking of her torso. At first his aim seemed off, wandering over her in erratic sweeps, until he simply collapsed to his knees and pulled her down to him.
Ben stood back and let her go. She collapsed into Andre’s arms, succumbing to his touch. He shoved the shirt off her shoulders to get at more of her skin, then laid her down on the pristine tiles of the floor. Before Andre could move closer, Ben clutched him by the shoulder and tugged at the hem of his shirt.
Without a word, Andre stripped off his shirt and let Ben help him out of his shoes and jeans. Kat surged up on her knees and pulled at the waistband of Andre’s boxers, pausing to stroke his cock once before he was fully naked. Nothing but hot urgency showed in Andre’s gaze when he grabbed Ben’s head and kissed him deeply, then hurriedly helped Ben shed his own clothes. They sank down on either side of Kat, pulling her to the floor and taking her breasts in their mouths again. This time Andre tugged Ben’s hand down between Kat’s thighs and she sighed when his fingers found her slick clit and stroked her.
“God, I need you both right now. Please, please fuck me.” Kat clutched at Ben, rolling onto her side. She slung a thigh across his hips, pushing him onto his back, and rose above him, her glorious breasts jiggli
ng alluringly when she leaned down to kiss him. She reached between her thighs and wrapped her hand around his cock, the lightest slide of her fingers along his length making him twitch against her.
She held him tightly, pressing his tip against her swollen clit and swirling it around in a circle until her flushed cheeks grew redder from her arousal and her eyelids fluttered with ecstasy.
“Let me inside you, baby,” he said, aching from her teasing.
Andre’s hands came around her from behind, cupping her breasts while his knees came to rest on either side of Ben’s thighs.
“Let him in that tight little snatch of yours, Kitty Kat. He’s missed you as much as I have.”
Kat smiled and tilted her head back against Andre’s shoulder. “Oh? And where will you be?”
“Right back here,” he said, letting one hand slip down her side and behind her. A second later the hand reached through her thighs and took over stroking Ben’s cock, rubbing its tip with maddening slowness against Kat’s clit some more. Finally Andre aimed him just so and Ben felt the slick heat of Kat’s opening engulf the throbbing head of his cock and tighten.
“Oh, God,” she exclaimed, opening her eyes to look at him. She leaned over, bracing her hands on his chest, and kissed him while he lifted his hips, letting himself experience the delicious, velvet warmth of her by slow increments. Blood pounded in his ears as much as in his cock, the sheer pleasure of her hot sheath sending his pulse skyrocketing.
She let out a rough moan against his lips and pulled back slightly. He caught a glimpse of Andre, his thick chest rising and falling, one hand clutching Kat’s hip tightly while the other teased between her ass cheeks. Andre’s blue gaze darted up once and rested on Ben, then he glanced around the kitchen. He had to lean only a short way to reach onto the counter and snag a clear bottle with pale golden liquid inside it.
Ben’s vision faltered amid the increased tempo of Kat’s fucking, but he managed to see the label just before Andre upended the bottle above the cleft of Kat’s ass. “Olive Oil,” it read upside-down as the pale, clear liquid drizzled out of a long, narrow steel spout. Give the man props for resourcefulness.