Love Under Two Adventurers [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  I have got to photograph that woman. He thought of how and where, of the angles and the lighting and even of the medium. But he wouldn’t think any more about the enormity of that desire, the first strong urge to return to his craft. Nor would he think about the revelations that seemed to be going off inside him like Fourth of July firecrackers. No, he wouldn’t think about them until later.

  * * * *

  Tonight’s the night.

  Rebecca had watched as Cody interacted, first with Grandma Kate, and then with the other members of the family. As Greg’s parents, and then her own had come to be introduced to Cody and then to say hello to her and Greg, she’d seen the emotions—uncertainty, fear, curiosity, wonder—and finally that last one. Envy.

  Cody Harper was many things, but an open book sure wasn’t one of them. During the day he could be an intriguing companion, a challenging competitor in checkers or chess, and an insightful conversationalist.

  In the late afternoon or early evening, he became a passionate and consummate lover. He could cook better than she could—praise the Lord—and even picked up after himself, and after Greg, too.

  But when the clock struck twelve and it was time for bed, Cody Harper turned into an obstinate, irritating man.

  He wouldn’t let her spend the night in the same bed with him.

  Poor Greg had been forced to choose between them, and that simply had to end. After that first night, when Greg had come to her bed and then lain awake most of the night, listening for Cody’s cries because the man could not sleep through the night without having nightmares, she’d insisted Greg sleep across the hall with Cody each night.

  She’d thought to give it a week, and now the time had come for her to take the bull by the horns—pun intended—and have a come-to-Jesus moment with the man.

  With both men, in fact.

  Cody was clearly suffering from nightmares, and Greg was just as determined to pamper him through them.

  Nothing wrong with pampering, every living jack one of us needs it from time to time. But there had to come a time where the pampering was replaced with some tough love.

  She couldn’t make Cody talk about what he’d been through—and tonight she had her first clue that what had happened to him in Syria was only a part of the story. She was, however, convinced the longer he went without talking, the more damaging to his soul his silence would become.

  Tonight, he’d had a few revelations about family, Lusty style. She and Greg had laid themselves bare already—literally and figuratively—for this man so he’d been able to get to know them. Now it was time for Mr. Harper to toss his clothes to the wind and drag his baggage out of the closet.

  They would never be able to move forward if something didn’t begin to give, and give soon.

  Tonight, Rebecca thought, was as good a time as any to begin what she thought might be a long, painful process. She thought about letting Greg in on what she had in mind, but decided against it. This was her play to become an equal partner in this relationship—in this family. Whether either of the men involved realized it or not, they were a family already. They could stay a family and reach astounding heights of intimacy and happiness, together. Or they could be a family destined to splinter and break apart under stress.

  Rebecca really didn’t know which of the two endings was fated to be hers, but the fear that it would be the latter and not the former really, really scared her stomach.

  In a way she couldn’t explain or justify, Rebecca Jessop knew that these two men were it for her. If they couldn’t work this out, she knew that after their end came, she would spend the rest of her life alone, lonely, and would very likely die broken-hearted.

  Artists. We’re all so fucking melodramatic.

  True enough. But Rebecca knew to her core that melodramatic or not, that last part had been gospel.

  She turned away from the window and approached the two men. Sitting side by side before the fire, they each nursed a half glass of brandy, and had fallen silent.

  She approached them from behind, bent slightly over the love seat, and slid her arms around Cody’s neck.

  “Do you know what I want right now?”

  She licked the shell of his ear and ran her hands up and down his chest so as to give the man a clue. She could see his erection pressing against his pants.

  “I can guess, Blue Eyes. But it’s getting late.” He ran his hands over hers. “Isn’t it almost your bedtime?”

  Rebecca beat down the spurt of temper that wanted to erupt. “Let me tell you what I want, then. I want us, all three, naked in that hot tub upstairs. Then I want us, all three, naked in that Lusty-sized bed that’s up there, making very hot and passionate love to each other. And then I want us, all three, to snuggle down in that bed, together, and go to sleep.”

  “Rebecca…” Greg started to intervene. She whipped her head to her left and shot him a look he should have no trouble interpreting.

  Greg snapped his mouth shut.

  “Baby, that’s sweet. But I’m tired.” Cody sounded almost sad, and that more than anything spurred her on.

  “Me, too, baby. I’m tired of being treated like the token cunt in this bromance y’all have going on here. I’m good enough to fuck, but not good enough to be an equal partner? Is that it?”

  “Becca!” Greg’s shock was genuine, and so, too, was Cody’s if the way his body had just jerked was any measure.

  “No, of course not!” Cody grasped her hands and lifted them from around his neck. Then he was facing her, kneeling on the love seat, meeting her gaze.

  “How could you ever think such a thing? I’ve never treated you with anything but the utmost respect and tenderness. Damn it, Rebecca, that accusation hurt!”

  “So does knowing I’m worthy of being fucked, but not worthy of spending the night with you.”

  “You don’t understand, honey. It has nothing to do with you.”

  “You’re right, I don’t understand. Explain it to me, please. Explain to me how you could possibly be thinking that we’ve got a shot at being a forever thing when you won’t even let me share your bed at night.”

  “Honey…” Cody looked really perplexed, and that was a really good sign. It meant that what he’d been doing—excluding her—hadn’t been calculated, so much as it had been instinctive.

  He inhaled deeply and turned toward Greg. When that man said nothing, Cody sighed. He met her gaze again. “Honey, I don’t sleep really solid at night, lately. I…I have nightmares.”

  “Wow, news flash. Cody, I know you have nightmares. I’ve known since the first night you spent here. I hear them, every single night.”

  “I’m sorry. Damn it, why didn’t you say something?” He ran a hand through his hair. “The last thing I want to do is wake you every night because of my pathetic dreams.”

  “Oh, Cody! How can you be so smart, and so stupid at the same time?” she asked.

  “What the hell do you mean by that?” He’d gone from pleading to angry in a heartbeat.

  Now we’re getting somewhere. “It doesn’t matter that you wake me in the night. What matters is, it hurts me knowing you have those nightmares. It hurts me knowing you don’t want me near when you do. Don’t close me out, damn it. Let me in.”

  “I’m not trying to close you out. I’m trying to protect you. You don’t understand. You don’t know, how could you possibly know? You’ve grown up in this fucking Shangri-la, this oasis of love and support, and you have no idea that—” Cody stopped and Rebecca knew he’d begun to say something he’d never intended to say.

  She tilted her head to the side, met his gaze, and said, “And I have no idea that some people grow up without real love, or real support. Is that what you were going to say? Or that, maybe, I don’t understand that you’ve grown up without those things? Baby, I’d already figured that one out.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I do know what I’m talking about. I know pain when I see it. Do you
think you can protect me from that? I don’t want or need to be protected, Cody.” It was, Rebecca knew, time to play her ace. She reached out, caressed his face and laid her trump card—and her heart, on the table.

  “I don’t want or need to be protected, Cody. I want, I need, for you to accept my love. I love you, Cody Harper. And I need you to be all right with that. I need you to let me love you, and I need you to love me back.”

  Chapter 14

  They’d foregone the tub in favor of the bed in the master bedroom.

  Rebecca looked over at Greg as he finished lighting the candles that she’d set out earlier. “You want to help me undress this hunk?”

  “Oh, absolutely.”

  Cody blushed, which Rebecca thought was sweet as hell. “Cut it out, you two. ‘Hunk,’ right. I’m a skinny runt compared to some of the men I’ve seen in this town.”

  “That’s true,” Greg said.

  “You do have a point.” Rebecca went up on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly. “Yeah, blond hair and brown eyes, swimmer’s lithe physique, you’re a skinny one, all right.” Then she began to open the buttons of his shirt. “Thing is, you happen to be perfect. For me.”

  “Yeah, for me, too.” Greg pressed up behind Cody, and when Rebecca finished opening his shirt, Greg took it off him. He pressed a kiss to the back of Cody’s shoulder, and that man closed his eyes and shivered. His nipples puckered and his blush traveled down his neck.

  “Go on with you.” Cody sounded embarrassed.

  It hadn’t taken long for Rebecca to realize one thing Cody Harper did not have was an inflated ego. Oh, he was authoritative when it came to his own art, or discussing photography in general. But the man had no real ego at all. Just the opposite in fact, and she wondered how much of that was innate and how much could be laid at the feet of his parents. She hoped she’d be able to get him to open up about whatever had happened in his youth to wound him so. In the meantime, she had something she wanted to do now that ought to make him feel pretty damn good.

  “It’s true. Maybe you need a demonstration.”

  “Oh yeah? Just what do you have in mind, Blue Eyes?”

  Rebecca didn’t answer, at least not in words. Instead, she unbuttoned Cody’s jeans, put her hands inside the waistband, and ensured his cock wouldn’t get caught. Then she pushed the jeans and his briefs down, off his hips until they hit the floor.

  She followed them down.

  Kneeling before him, she took a moment to look at his cock. Now this part of him definitely was not skinny. Hard like it was now, with purple-blue veins pulsing along the length, she thought it a marvelous, wonderful thing. His cockhead, slightly purple, circumcised, glistened with a tiny drop of pre-cum that actually made her mouth water. She took a moment and nuzzled him, right at the very spot where his cock emerged from the nest of hair surrounding it. He smelled good, different from Greg, but still good.

  Maybe the day will come when I’ll be able to tell them apart, blindfolded. That was a happy thought.

  “Jesus Christ, woman. You’re driving me crazy!”

  “That’s the plan, lover. I really like your cock by the way.” She used her nose to brush against his balls and the bottom of his penis.

  Cody’s response was a strangled kind of wordless sound that she had no trouble understanding.

  “She’s being a little minx, isn’t she?” Greg sounded amused as he directed his comment to their lover.

  Rebecca looked up and smiled at Greg, resting his chin on Cody’s shoulder and looking down at her. She liked that look in his eyes, a look of happiness and love and peace.

  “You say you like it,” Cody said. He looked down at her, his gaze fierce. “But talk is cheap. What I need is a little demonstration here, instead of just words—show, not just tell.”

  Rebecca grinned, then used her tongue to give him a nice long lick from balls to tip. She let her tongue swirl out and lap up that tiny drop of viscose syrup he had there waiting for her.

  “God, you are so going to get a spanking.” Cody’s words sounded aggrieved, but his tone sure didn’t. He combed his fingers through her hair, pulled her closer, and said, “Suck my cock, woman. Now!”

  Rebecca was nothing if not obedient—well, when she wanted to be, at any rate. At the moment what she wanted to do was suck Cody’s cock. She didn’t just want to taste him, she wanted to pleasure him. She wanted to surround him with as much love and affection and good feelings as she possibly could. No, she could never make up to him the lack he’d grown up with. But she could damn well guarantee that he wouldn’t ever feel unloved or unwanted or threatened again.

  Cody jerked and she grinned because she knew that Greg had just reached down and begun playing with his ass. She closed her mouth over Cody’s cock and took him as deep as she could. Sliding her tongue up and down his shaft, she treated him to tiny little sucks that she hoped would get him hot and horny, fast.

  She loved the flavor of him, a deeply musky salty combination that her taste buds recognized as Cody. The sensation of having his cock in her mouth, of having her lips stretched wide to accommodate him combined with that flavor, sent “fuck me” signals to her cunt. She’d been mildly interested when she dropped his pants. Now, she was hot and aroused.

  She moved her head up and down, and used her hands to help—one wrapped around his cock so she could pump him as she sucked, and the other to gently cup his scrotum.

  She squeezed his sac rhythmically, amazed at how that soft, fragile-feeling part of him got hotter and seemed to draw upward, readying, she knew, to release his sperm.

  “God, woman, you have such a fantastic mouth! I’m close, baby.”

  She felt him trembling, and her heart sang for giving him this. His cock gave her little tiny drops of nectar, but she wanted more.

  She wanted it all.

  She stretched her hand out so that the fingers cupping his balls could also stroke upward toward his anus.

  Greg’s fingers found hers and caressed, and she felt fully there, completely a part of them for the first time.

  “Oh, God, yes, I’m coming!”

  Rebecca hadn’t needed his words. She’d known. She sucked on his cock, long, strong draws that effectively pulled the seed right out of him. His cries of victory signaled she’d brought him higher, and as he kept shooting into her mouth, she continued to suck and swallow until she did indeed have it all.

  Rebecca sensed as much as felt Greg’s arm come around Cody to keep him upright. She tapered her ministrations, until she finally released him. Unwilling for this moment, this intimate, loving moment to be over, she placed little kisses on his hip and inner thigh.

  He reached down and stroked her head, the gentlest of touches that communicated so much.

  “I love you, Rebecca. Seriously. I didn’t ever dream I’d be lucky enough to love and be loved by one person in this life, let alone two.”

  Rebecca stood up, laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around both him and Greg.

  “Cody Harper, you deserve to be loved. You deserve every good thing that can come your way.”

  “What she said.” Greg’s other arm caressed her side.

  “Maybe the day will come when I can really believe that.”

  “It will.” Rebecca stepped back. There was only one thing to do now, and that was get this most fragile of her lovers into bed. She began to peel her clothes off. “Come on, babe. I need you to hold me.”

  “You should need me to do a hell of a lot more than that.” He brought her close, pressing his flesh against hers. His cock began to harden and she liked her chances for round two.

  “That was a gift, darling. Something I needed to give you.”

  Cody kissed her, a sweet, tender kind of a kiss. “All right. Climb in, and we’ll snuggle.”

  Rebecca waited until Cody snuggled up to her left side, and then she giggled as she rolled over him, so that he was on her right.

  Greg had stripped, and he got into the bed on the oth
er side. Cody was in the middle, which was where she wanted him—where Greg wanted him, too, apparently.

  “How come I get to be the filling?” Cody didn’t sound terribly disappointed with this turn of events.

  “Because you’re the one we’re focused on right now,” Greg said.

  “Gosh I feel all special.”

  “You know, lover, Rebecca isn’t the only one who can be spanked.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  “Robert and David and Jillian belong to a club.” Rebecca sighed as she snuggled into Cody. All this talk of spankings was getting her wet. “It’s in Houston. Now, if there’s one club in that city, there’s got to be another one, right?”

  Cody snickered. “What’s the matter, Blue Eyes? Afraid to do a scene, all naked in front of the docs? They’re docs, you know. I’m sure they’ve seen naked women before.”

  “Hell, they’re Doms,” Greg said. “I’m sure they’ve seen naked subs before, of both genders.”

  Rebecca shivered. “I’d just as soon not encounter them at all there, if it’s all the same to you.” She sighed again. “Okay, let’s forget I even mentioned it, all right? I’ve changed my mind. Maybe we could just play here. Sometime.”

  “You craving a little D/s action, baby?” Greg asked.

  “Y’all get talking about spankings and my pussy gets wet. Wouldn’t hurt to experiment.”

  “Speaking of experiments.” Cody moved fast, so fast she didn’t even see it coming. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled on top of him, and Greg was on his knees, stroking his hand over her ass.

  “We want to fuck you here,” he said as he moved his fingers back and forth over her anus. “So we’re going to start to get you ready for that right now.”

  “Hand me a condom, lover, and then hold her up for a moment.”

  Rebecca didn’t really like being talked about as if she wasn’t there—usually. It continually amazed her that what she usually didn’t care for worked very well when it came to these two men and sex.