by Mari Carr
“Oh my God,” she whispered on a breath.
Tyson lifted his head, looking down at Caleb’s fingers slipping in and out. He’d started slow, but her breathless cries for more, the way her hips were thrusting in time, drove him to move faster.
Her whole body jerked when Tyson joined the party down under, rubbing her clit until she cried out louder.
“I need…” she gasped. “Need…”
Tyson looked at him.
Moment of truth.
“You first,” Caleb said.
Tyson reached into the nightstand and pulled out two condoms. He tossed one to Caleb before putting his own on.
Harley had stilled, her eyes drifting between them. She was breathing heavily. They hadn’t pushed her over the edge, so her orgasm remained, simmering just beneath the surface.
“You okay, darlin’?” Caleb asked.
She nodded.
He lay next to her as Tyson knelt between her outstretched legs. Both of them watched as he directed his cock to her opening and then as it slowly disappeared inside.
Caleb hadn’t put his own condom on yet, so he wrapped his fist around his cock, stroking it in time with Tyson’s movements.
Harley caught sight of his actions, reaching out to take the task over. Her grip was light, tentative. So Caleb covered her hand with his as Tyson continued to take her slowly.
All three of them were aware of everything that was happening in that bed. While he and Harley watched Tyson’s cock disappear, then reappear, Tyson’s gaze rested on Harley and Caleb’s hand stroking his dick.
For a few moments, the pace remained slow, steady. Then, as their arousal grew, so did their need for more. Tyson began to press in harder, faster, and Caleb matched his grip—and Harley’s—to their rhythm.
Soon they were all breathing heavily, Harley crying out as her climax inched ever closer.
Tyson bent lower to place a kiss on her cheek. “God, Harley. I’m so close.”
“Me. Too.” She forced the words out.
Caleb tugged her hand away from his cock. He was too damn close himself and there was no way he wasn’t coming inside her body this first time. He held her hand, gritting his teeth as her grip tightened. Her back arched off the mattress as she came, Tyson there as well, jerking with the force of his own climax.
Despite just coming, both Harley and Tyson seemed to be perfectly aware of Caleb’s presence and the fact he was still hurting.
Tyson withdrew slowly, the action provoking a powerful shudder in Harley’s body. He dropped down to her side, clearing the path for Caleb.
Caleb bent closer to her, kissing her just once. “You okay, gorgeous?”
She smiled sweetly. “I will be once you hurry your ass up and get inside me.”
Game, set, match.
His heart belonged to Harley Mills, and it would until the day he died.
He quickly slid the condom on and within seconds, he was pushing his way into paradise.
Harley wrapped her ankles around his waist. He considered giving her time to recover from her previous orgasm, but he recalled her face when Tyson promised her slow. Then he remembered her responses to their rougher touches.
They’d never held back with Harley, telling her all their tales, including her in all their locker room talk.
Her eyes locked with his and he knew she remembered the stories too.
“Do it,” she prodded.
Caleb let go of the reins, took her the way he loved. Fast, hard. He liked the slightest bit of pain with his pleasure, something he’d confessed to his best friends several years earlier.
He’d noticed then that they hadn’t been shocked or appalled. In fact, if he’d had his freaking eyes open, he would have recognized the same desires in them.
Caleb reached for one of her breasts, pinching her nipple with some serious pressure.
Harley jerked and her pussy clenched tightly against his dick.
Tyson reached for her face—the doctor in him doing what came natural, checking to make sure she was okay. “Harley?”
She grinned. “I think we’re going to get really good at this…and by good, I mean super dirty.”
Caleb laughed, even as he continued to thrust inside her. “God, I love you two.”
As far as pronouncements went, that one came too soon.
And too late.
Tyson’s brows lifted with humor. “Never thought Cal would be the sappy one.”
Caleb stilled his motions, shooting his best friend a dirty look, though there was no real heat behind it.
Harley giggled. Then she reached out to cup each of their cheeks. “I love you guys too. Still screwed?” she asked Caleb.
He nodded. “Oh, hell yeah. But if we’re going down, I say we do it in a blaze of glory.”
Caleb thrust in once, more roughly than before. Then twice, three times more. Tyson reached between their bodies, stroking her clit.
Harley closed her eyes tightly, gasping for air. And then, without a single word, they both let go. At the exact same time.
Caleb fell to her side. Tyson was propped up on his elbow looking at the two of them as they struggled to catch their breath.
None of them spoke for a few minutes. No doubt his friends were trying to let what just happened soak in. God knew that was what he was doing.
Harley, ever the brave one, broke the silence first. “Regrets?”
“No.” Tyson’s reply came instantly.
Caleb shook his head, but his reply took a second too long. “No.”
Harley’s gaze slid his way. “Say what’s on your mind, Cal.”
There wasn’t anything he couldn’t say to these two. Sometimes he thought they knew him better than he knew himself. “I was raised in a pretty strict household by ultra-conservative parents. Everything I’ve ever been taught by my parents would tell me that what we just did was wrong. Really wrong.”
Harley bit her lip, her eyes troubled. “You said you don’t have regrets.”
“That’s just it. I don’t. This isn’t wrong. I have no fucking idea how I’ll convince my parents of that, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. Or that I’m going to let their beliefs stop me from grabbing this.”
Tyson grinned. “Welcome aboard. You realize you were trying to convince me we should miss this trip. Just stay safe on shore.”
Caleb reached across Harley’s body to punch his friend on the shoulder. “Okay, metaphor man. You want to play that way? You’re right. The cruise is awesome. But a hurricane is heading right for us. You ready for that?”
Tyson shrugged. “We’re thirty-two years old, Cal. Don’t you think that’s too fucking old to be worrying so much about what people think that we deny ourselves true happiness?” Tyson glanced down at Harley. “And love.”
“I get that. But I love my folks, respect them, and—for better or worse—I do care about their opinion. Jesus, my dad just had a heart attack and his health is tenuous at best. Finding out I’m sleeping with you and Harley could push him over the edge.”
Tyson didn’t reply to that. Caleb knew it was because, while Tyson was completely in as far as this relationship was concerned, he felt the same way about his family. Tyson wanted his dad’s approval and respect as much as Caleb did. They’d both grown up idolizing their fathers. And while it was easy to say to hell with it, this is right and what makes me happy and I don’t give a shit what others say, it was another thing completely to actually walk that walk.
“We could lay low with this if you want.” Harley was sweet to make the offer, but neither Caleb nor Tyson were fans of deception or lying.
“You think this will get old? That we’ll figure out it was a mistake somewhere down the line?” Caleb asked Harley.
She shook her head. “I hope we can make it work forever.”
Caleb kissed her on the cheek. “So do I. And if it was just you and me, I’d be taking you out for dinner tomorrow night, holding your hand, kissing you in public and making da
mn sure every guy in town knew you were mine.”
She smiled somewhat sadly. “I like the sound of that. But I don’t need it. We can just keep up the roommate pretense for…”
“For how long?” Tyson asked. “How long would you all be willing to hide your true feelings?”
“I don’t want to hide,” Caleb said. Despite his concerns for his family, he hated the idea of lying to them even more. “Hiding insinuates that we’re doing something wrong. We’re not.”
“Fine,” Harley said. “So we’ll come out slowly. Tell our families and close friends first, and only when we’re able to. Until then, we just keep the hand-holding and kissing private. There’s no huge rush. I mean…let’s face it…this is brand spanking new. We should probably try to come to grips with it ourselves first.”
“Okay,” Caleb agreed. They did need to take some time to figure out how and when they’d break the news. Until then, he didn’t want to ruin what was shaping up to being the best night of his life.
“So who’s ready for round two?” Tyson asked.
Chapter Eight
Harley spun around the store and resisted the urge to pinch herself. Since returning home, it felt almost as if she were living a dream. A really racy dream.
She smiled when she recalled the past ten days. She, Caleb and Tyson hadn’t needed to worry about coming out to anyone because they’d found it damn hard to leave the house. No, scratch that. It was the bedroom they were struggling to leave.
While Caleb and Tyson went to work each day, they kept their hours as short as possible, rushing back home to her. During the days, when they were gone, she did a lot of research online in terms of stocking her music store and the million other things associated with starting a business from the ground up.
This past weekend, they’d only managed to leave the bedroom for food occasionally, and twice they’d walked down to the lake at dusk to go skinny-dipping. Unlike their first foray into naked swimming, the second two attempts were enough to bring the chilly lake water to a boil.
Now that they’d made the leap from friends to lovers, Caleb and Tyson seemed happier, more easygoing. At least, they did when they were in the privacy of their own home. Today was her first day out in the real world with them, and Harley was anxious, nervous to see what would transpire. They’d basically agreed to tell people at their own pace. If it were up to her, she would have walked through town with a megaphone this morning, screaming it to everyone who would listen.
After so many years of just existing, Harley felt like she’d finally woken up, come to life. She was in love. When she considered her previous relationship with Juan, she realized this was the first time she’d ever felt this way. It was amazing, incredible, heavenly.
“You’re going to have to practice wiping that smile off your face or you’ll give us all away without having to say a word,” Caleb said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head. Both he and Tyson had her by at least half a foot. Vertically challenged, they liked to tease her. She’d never felt that disparity in size until they flanked her in bed. Her own personal, muscly man cave. She loved nestling beneath them, loved how secure, how protected she felt. Harley could happily hibernate underneath her fellas for the rest of her life.
Caleb placed a strong finger beneath her chin, lifting her face up. He narrowed his eyes playfully. “And now you’re blushing. You really need to work on your poker face, hot stuff.”
“Sorry. I’ll try harder.”
Caleb looked as if he didn’t have much confidence in her success. Of course, he looked a lot like the cat who ate the canary himself, so she wasn’t the only one giving them away. Not that it mattered here.
They were alone in Jill’s old beauty shop. The former renter had cleared out the place this weekend, while Harley had been rolling around in bed with the landlord. Typically, Bugsy, the property manager, would have been the tour guide, showing Harley the space, but Caleb had insisted on coming with her instead.
They’d stopped by Bugsy’s office to grab the key before heading here. Bugsy never questioned why Caleb was taking the lead on this rental. For one, everyone in town knew Caleb and Harley were close friends, and secondly, Caleb had shared Harley’s plans for the property and his vested interest in the business.
Given that the Hott family owned at least half the town, no one would blink twice at Caleb investing in yet another venture. Especially not one that included her and music.
“So what do you think?” Caleb asked, gesturing at the space. “What was your plan for the layout of the store?”
Harley reached into her pocket and withdrew a sketch she’d made last Thursday after he and Tyson had gone to work. This morning, Tyson had taken off early to head into Douglas to do some rounds at the hospital, which left her and Caleb alone to get ready. Caleb had tried to entice her into the shower with him, but Harley had resisted, knowing that if she agreed, neither of them would make it to town today. Plus, Tyson would have been pissed off to miss out on all the fun.
Harley still wasn’t sure how this thing between them was working. Or why. But she didn’t want to test too many boundaries until they’d had time to talk out a few things. Very few words had been spoken about the particulars of what they were embarking on, and how it would work, as they lost themselves in the newness, the excitement of what they’d discovered.
However, there were quite a few conversations lined up on the docket. And until they happened, Harley wasn’t about to upset the apple cart.
“Here.” She handed him the paper, a bit nervous as he studied her crude drawing. Caleb had studied business in college, earning an MBA at Texas A&M. Harley’s retail resume consisted of only one year’s worth of experience garnered at her great-aunt’s beachside shop.
“This is really good, Harl.”
She wanted to be relieved by his comment, but she couldn’t get past the slight tone of amazement in his voice. “Surprised?”
He gave her a sheepish grin. “No?”
She rolled her eyes. “Asshole.”
“It’s a solid setup, sweetheart. Seriously. You’ve really got a good eye in terms of layout and making the best use of the space. Tempted to have you come over to the Feed and Seed and give me some feedback on how to fix that place. After forty years in business, the thing is a hodgepodge. We add a new product and the goal becomes simply finding a place for it, rather than finding the best place. I’m starting to get claustrophobic there.”
She agreed with the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Feed and Seed. “Not sure I’d have a clue how to help. That place is a maze. Besides, while it feels like craziness to you, you have to consider your customers. Very few people more set in their ways than farmers. You go moving everything around and they’ll flip out.”
Caleb grimaced and sighed. “Yeah. I know. I think that’s why I’m excited about this place. We can take the time to do it right.”
She loved it when he said “we.” While she had expected to feel the grief she’d experienced after Johnnie’s death, what took her down harder was the sudden loneliness. Her brother had been her closest companion her entire life—always there, always listening. In Florida, she hadn’t had anyone to confide her deepest secrets to.
This weekend, as the three of them lay in bed together, Harley found all her thoughts, hopes, dreams and fears spilling out of her. And the loneliness had vanished. Instantly.
“I thought we could use this space back here for the music lessons,” she said, walking toward the rear of the store.
For the next hour, they discussed what instruments she would stock, discussed sheet music options and, as Harley did some quick searches on her phone, they looked at shelving.
“Damn,” Caleb said, glancing at his watch. “I was supposed to be at the Feed and Seed twenty minutes ago.” He handed her the key. “Why don’t you keep looking around and then lock the place up behind you? We can start making some to-do lists tonight at dinner when Tyson
’s around to offer some input. The countdown to opening up shop starts now.”
“God. That’s exciting as hell. And completely terrifying. I only need a couple more minutes here. I just want to get a few more measurements for the storage closets and then I’m heading over to the bank to sign the final papers on the loan. Once that’s done, I’ll get with Bugsy to discuss the lease.”
Caleb winked. “Sounds like a plan, Stan.”
She laughed, reaching up on tiptoe to steal a quick kiss. Or at least that had been her intention. Caleb clearly had other plans.
He wrapped his arms around her back and held her in place, pressing her lips open so he could steal a taste. Harley ran her fingers through his hair, savoring this sudden closeness.
After endless hours—days—of touching and kissing, Harley found herself hungrier for more rather than sated. How long would it take before she was fully satisfied? Something told her years. A lifetime.
Caleb tugged her closer, letting her feel his erection against her stomach. While they were toward the back of the store, that didn’t mean anyone walking past couldn’t look in the large plate glass window and see them.
Harley pulled away, her mouth a mere inch or two from Caleb’s. “Guess there’s no chance you could skip work today? We could swing by Tyson’s office, force him to cancel all his appointments and go back home.”
Caleb placed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “That’s the most tempting offer I’ve ever had in my life.”
“And yet you still have to say no. More of that adulting stuff?”
He nodded. “Afraid so.”
They kissed once more, this one with less heat, but by no means less exciting.
“Shit,” Caleb muttered as they moved apart.
“That bad?” she joked.
He shook his head. “Your stepdad is outside watching us. He saw the kiss.”
Harley glanced over just in time to catch Art’s disapproving scowl. “Shit,” she said, repeating Caleb’s sentiment. “Maybe it just looked like a friendly kiss.”
Caleb tilted his head in a “seriously?” manner and she knew he was right. The first kiss had been molten and the second had definitely been overly affectionate, bordering on romantic. She had no idea how long Art had been there, but even if he’d only caught the tail end, he’d seen too much.