by Ace Gray
What are you doing? I screamed in my head a split second before he crooked his finger up and started massaging the inside of me. The gentle rock felt fucking phenomenal, like he was single-handedly pushing me toward the brink of orgasm. Well, I guess single-fingeredly.
So I went with it, thrusting into Elle’s tumbling pussy a few more times before the sensation Horse was creating did shove me past the point of no return. I cried out, long and ragged, as I pumped into her. Cum swirled around my cock and started dripping from her slit down onto my shaft and I all but melted into the floor.
Horse’s hand skated between our thighs, catching what he could. The second I caught my breath, I scolded him. “Leave it Horse, I want all of us on me.”
His big brash laugh cut through the room and I couldn’t help but smile as my chest hammered up into Elle’s. She nuzzled my neck again but I felt the corners of her lips pull up too.
“I’m jealous.” Horse leaned down and kissed between Elle’s slight shoulder blades. “I want all of us on me too. You’re a lucky bastard.”
“I blew you,” I arched my eyebrow, “you’re the lucky bastard.”
He laughed again, the lightest, happiest sound I’d heard in ages. I smiled as I automatically turned to kiss Elle’s cheek.
“And you, Ladylove? You want a reminder of all of us together covering your skin?”
Her fingers curled into my shoulders before she spoke.
“I remember each of your thousand kisses, each of your possessive touches. I can trace the outline of Horse’s handprints and feel the stretch from when you share me,” she murmured, her words breathy and light. “But this moment, the moment you accepted our deeply twisted but somehow beautiful fate, has to be with me forever.”
She blew out a deep breath while her words, so tiny yet so precious, made it so I couldn’t breathe at all. The tiny little body on top of me was such a beautiful weight on my chest. A weight I’d gladly carry to the ends of the earth. She couldn’t break me further, she only built a brand new me.
“Cole, will you tattoo me?” she finally asked, timid and almost trembling, reminding me all over again that she could decimate me anytime she pleased.
19.
Elle
My insides should have been that blissful honey mush that they went to after orgasm but everything in me tensed waiting for his answer. After what we’d just done, after what he’d done, it suddenly seemed so important. But he sat unmoving and painstakingly silent beneath me.
He’d said he’d earn the right to tattoo me, to mark me with the Ladylove I’d worked so hard to keep inked on my skin, but just because I deemed him worthy didn’t mean he did.
“Hey,” he said, his voice so soft and warm I nestled against him. “Ladylove, look at me.”
I twisted up from the crook of his neck at his request and met beautiful blazing green eyes. For a moment, it seemed as if tears danced in the corners, waiting to spill.
“Elle, do you mean it?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer me. Instead he used his vise grip to roll us, pinning me to the floor. His knee notched behind mine and seamlessly hitched my leg up. He settled in between my open thighs and kissed me.
There was no way to describe that kiss. Cole was stealing my breaths one by one, but giving each back warm and fresh and alive with the taste of him, of loving him. He wasn’t consuming me so much as he was melting into me, and together, we were everything. I felt the beauty of the night sky and the hope of sunrise in that kiss.
Cole was my universe.
And that kiss was a brilliant comet trailing across the deep black that had enveloped us. What was better was that he was finally part of that brilliance with me. I could feel it in the way he touched me and tasted my bottom lip.
When he pulled away he leaned his forehead against mine. “Elle, I swear on the very life in my veins that I will be the man worthy of marking you, of coloring your skin.”
My heart cracked and tears I didn’t notice were right at the brink started to fall. His face folded, the reflection of the tragically beautiful feelings swirling inside me, and for a moment I swore I saw his dimple trying to pull at the corner of his cheek. I leaned up to where it may or may not have appeared and gently kissed him.
“Cole, you already are.”
Cole hadn’t bothered to put on his shirt and Horse hadn’t bothered to put on shoes when we crept down to the shop. I was wrapped in one of Cole’s t-shirts, drinking in the smell of him woven into the fabric and the lingering scent of us, all three of us, clinging to my skin.
“Okay, Ladylove, what are we thinking?” Cole asked as he stroked my cleaned forearm, a warm, almost easy smile hanging on his face.
“I like the word. It’s been my reminder of what I can’t lose, what’s worth fighting for. Even what it feels like when lightning strikes.” I smiled shyly remembering how his three words had struck me so forcefully I’d been irrevocably changed. “That word is my talisman.”
Cole bent down and kissed the skin beneath his thumb ardently, closing his eyes as he kept his lips pressed firmly to my skin.
“You, every fucking piece of you, is mine.” His eyes met mine as he spoke and my insides jackknifed.
Horse cleared his throat behind Cole and slugged back his beer. I reached for him with my free hand. “You’re the rock I can always cling to,” I said as I squeezed his hand. His answering smile spread wider, far more genuine now.
“That makes two of us.” Cole leaned against Horse where he was drawn in close.
“My Cupcake and my Fucktart.” He shoved his hand through my hair then bent to kiss Cole’s shoulder.
Cole laughed loud and brash when Horse’s lips touched him, a sound so pure and filled with joy, it rocked me. I gasped, drawing Cole’s attention back to me. He didn’t stop his laughter. Instead he let his eyes twinkle and his dimple desperately tried to hollow out.
“Did you want your beautiful script or should I freehand it?” He was still the definition of the sun warming damp earth with his radiant smile fixed on me.
“It has to be you,” I murmured.
“Good.” His eyes flashed before he bent down and started working on my arm.
He wiped my skin, shaved it with a yellow disposable Bic and cleaned the patch again. Horse turned on a playlist and handed me a beer as he settled in to watch.
“Ladylove, you shouldn’t drink that,” Cole warned but didn’t look up from where he was sketching in purple marker.
“It’s one beer, Cole,” Horse replied as he gestured for me to drink up.
Cole rolled his eyes but he was lost to the marks on my skin. They were rough, to say the least but I understood what he was shaping line-by-line. I did the same thing when I was getting ready to work with metal, a rough outline of the beautiful form I’d eventually uncover. I sipped on the beer and surrendered my arm to the artist soul that spoke to mine.
“It’s nothing like it will be once I put in the detail lines and shading but let me know if you like the overall size and shape.” Cole looked up tentatively when he asked.
“It’s perfect.” I didn’t pull my gaze from his, I didn’t need to.
“Ladylove,” he arched his eyebrows at me, “please.”
I barely glanced down to take in the lines of his scratches. The outline wasn’t pretty but the shape and soul of it shone through.
“It’s perfect,” I repeated, this time letting my fingers dip and curve along the edges of the ink.
“Like you,” Cole said softly as he reached for my arm and pulled it out along the vinyl covered perch.
He fiddled with the gun and the small thimbleful cups of ink. Despite being shirtless, he pulled on black latex gloves then grabbed a paper towel and turned toward me.
“Ready? It’s gonna hurt.” His eyes danced.
“I can deal with a little pain if it means the pleasure of you.”
Cole bent down and kissed over top of the purple ink he’d sketched
across my pale skin. He pressed his perfect lips gently to my skin and goose bumps radiated out from that one delicious point. When he sat up, he drank me in as his thumb brushed over the top of the design.
He nodded again and then the familiar buzz filled the room. A very unfamiliar sensation shot through me when he pressed the tattoo gun to my skin. I couldn’t help but wince and suck in a sharp breath. As quickly as he started, he stopped and pulled back, his eyes darting side to side as he searched my face.
I nodded quickly and he dove back in. Horse slid his spinning stool closer to me, resting his hand on my thigh as he leaned over to watch. All of us sat enjoying the buzz that filtered through our ears and chattered on our unhinged bones. Cole was making the tiniest, most delicate lines, each one at odds with his big hands and sculpted frame. Unlike my Sharpie version, this wasn’t thick script, but rather whisper thin lace-like letters. Tiny figures started taking shape inside of the bigger, bolder Ladylove, all disguised deep within the design. But I could see a tiny paper crane and swirling stars.
Tears fell one by one down my cheeks and hit against my chest, turning my light gray shirt a darker shade where they landed. Cole paused when he noticed and I let one sob of soul shaking happiness shake my shoulders. It sent my hair cascading down, curtaining our moment from Horse.
He let us have it.
Cole wiped the excess ink away with pressure that seemed to cool my fiery skin. The clank of the metal gun against his workstation only preceded his deep steady breaths by one heartbeat, then he leaned in and kissed first one eyelid then the other.
“Everything,” he whispered then bent down so he could catch my downturned gaze.
“Everything,” I repeated and nodded despite the glittering tears clinging to the corner of my eyes.
He swallowed something thick in his throat then picked the gun back up, brushing the ends of my hair as he started to tattoo again. Horse’s stool creaked and the telltale signs of it rolling back across the floor had me bracing for the whisper of his knee against mine but the next moment he stood.
I watched him over top of Cole, his eyes fixed on my arm, a beautiful smile splitting his lips. He watched every one of Cole’s movements, the way he flexed and twitched the tiniest bit as he worked, the way his artwork flowed from his fingertips as easy as water would over mine. The contentment in his face seemed to say that Horse cherished this moment if for no other reason than he was privy to the intimacy roaring between us.
I loved him all the more for it.
He caught me smiling up at him rather than down at my arm and leaned in to kiss my eyelids exactly where Cole had. The waterworks started again in delicate rivulets down my cheeks.
And when Cole blew out a deep breath, wiped the gorgeous tattoo and unhooked his gun, Horse righted himself and bent down to kiss between his shoulder blades. He pressed his lips as ardently to the eagle crossing that beautiful back as he had to my eyes.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” A familiar voice jolted us from our warm bubble.
All three of us snapped to where Conrad stood, framed in the shop door.
“I’m sitting at home painting color swatches on every wall, re-watching episodes of the Bachelorette and picking at my fucking manicure because the last time you all rode off into the sunset, Horse came home as fish bait. And while I’m home alone, going prematurely gray, and shaving years off my Golden Girls filled retirement with worry, you all are fucking.” He was screeching, his face turning as red as the color he’d been chipping off his fingernails. “And after I told you how I felt about it.”
“Conrad.” I tried to calm him down as I stood up. Cole automatically rose and wrapped around me.
“Don’t you dare Conrad me,” he scoffed. “You’ve got more filling than a double stuffed Oreo. Don’t even talk to me what it’s like to be empty.” He was gathering steam, smoke starting to metaphorically puff at his ears.
“Don’t yell at her.” Cole’s fingers wove protectively into mine.
“I’m yelling at all of you for being so fucking greedy. Why can’t you let me fill his heart up? Why can’t you leave us alone long enough to let me try?” He was shrieking now, the vein in his neck he deemed unladylike thrummed with every syllable.
“Why can’t you acknowledge that there’s room for all of us,” Cole shot back. “My heart doesn’t pick between him and her. She owns all of me, every fucking square inch but she knows that he stretches it, then fills in the cracks.”
“So you’re suggesting I let you two fill my cracks?” Conrad shoved his hands on his hips.
“If that gets you to shut the fuck up about Horse being Horse, about love being love, then fine. Strip.” Cole stepped forward and narrowed his gaze as his hands went to his belt, pulling.
“This isn’t about sex,” Conrad screamed, stiff arming Cole.
“We know that,” Horse finally broke his silence. “Do you?”
Conrad growled with clenched teeth, but otherwise simply seethed at Horse. At us.
“You talk about me like you know me.” Horse sighed. “But if you knew me, you’d understand this.”
“Know you?” he bellowed. “You think I don’t know you?”
Conrad’s shoulders heaved and his teeth gritted together as he glowered. Horse straightened under the weight of the silence but otherwise, none of us moved.
“You like your coffee with cream, no sugar,” Conrad snarled. “You prefer over easy eggs unless we have tortillas, then you want scrambled.” He took a step toward Horse. “You eat chips in even numbers.” And another. “Price is Right reminds you of your grandma, and you watch it when you’re depressed.”
His last step brought him nose to nose with Horse. Muscle met muscle, as they held each other’s gaze, neither wavering. Horse seemed to clench and unclench his fists, feathering the muscles of his neck. Conrad’s face pinched as he twisted the tiniest bit, his neck open to Horse, his lips reaching for Horse’s plump pout.
“I know that spot on your dick you call your cum button.” Conrad rolled his head to the other side, dipping his ear to his shoulder, and licking his lips as he went. I could feel the heat pouring off the two of them, a tumultuous swirl of lust and fury. “I know how much you like it when I suck on your fingers while you fuck me.” He moved in close enough that his lips brushed Horse’s. His voice rumbled, low and devastatingly sexy in his chest before he whispered words. “And I know that you’re a selfish prick that’s going to miss me when I’m gone.”
Horse was already bending toward Conrad, his eyes heavy and hooded, when Conrad turned on his heel and sprinted out the door.
“Conrad,” I called and started after him.
“You used to be on my side,” he spat at me as he whipped open the door and shot out into the night.
“Conrad,” I yelled again, breaking into a run as I rounded the desk in the shop.
“Don’t, Fucktart,” Horse said softly, his hand reaching to pin the door shut to the frame. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
“He’s my best friend. He’s always been there for me. I have to…”
“He wasn’t there for you when Cole left. He didn’t understand. He won’t,” Horse interrupted, his eyes dark where he scowled off into the distance.
“It’s not exactly normal.” I deflated as I turned to lean against the door.
“That doesn’t make it wrong, Ladylove,” Cole said softly as he rounded the desk to collect me in his arms. I nuzzled in as soon as he was wrapped around me.
“Tonight…” Horse started then blew out a deep breath. “Tonight was everything I’ve ever dreamed of. And not just because Cole’s tongue worked its magic on me.” He shot us a small smile and a small chuckle deep inside Cole’s chest shook my cheek. “But because it was really us, all three of us, together. And after everything that happened before…” His voice trailed off. “I didn’t think we’d ever get back here.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him, I didn’t think we could stay.
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br /> 20.
Cole
“You aren’t gonna go after him?” I asked after I’d wrapped Elle and let her sneak off to the bathroom.
It was the next room but having her that far away hurt. I had a feeling any moment my skin wasn’t touching hers from here on out would be agony. As good as tonight was, how I felt about her made me worry about Horse. His future was a question mark with us every bit as much as it was with Conrad. Some things just couldn’t stay the same.
“Didn’t wear shoes,” he grumped back.
“That would make it all the more dramatic to run after him. And he’s nothing if not dramatic.” I smiled in spite of myself. Tonight loosened something bitter that had been clinging to my heart. “Maybe catch him at the train station in the rain.”
“Why? So he can yell at me some more? About something I found incredibly beautiful, no less.” Horse narrowed his gaze at me, but the pain and indecision in the squinch of his face read like a book.
“So you can figure out how to make this all work. So you can have the man you love and…”
“I don’t love him,” Horse interrupted.
“Liar,” I shot back with a lazy smile, despite the tinge. “You do if only you’d let yourself.”
“And why wouldn’t I let myself?”
“Wasn’t it you that told me, it’s only the people we’d die for that can truly kill us?” I used his own words against him. And I remembered how once upon a time they felt like stones falling on my shoulders.
“I’d die for you. I’d die for Elle.”
“I think deep down you know that either one of us would fall on the knife first. There’s comfort in that.” I clapped him on the shoulder as I wove to where Elle appeared from the back room. “But there’s something better than safety in being vulnerable. In letting someone take your armor off piece by piece.” I took her lips as soon as I stopped speaking, determined never to go more than a few minutes without kissing her again.