Relay for Life

by Downs Jana

“Easy, Andrew,” Matthew said, pulling him back into his embrace. “He’ll be fine.” He looked at Andrew like he was considering something.

  “What?” Andrew asked.

  “You have a lot of phobias, love. Do you ever get tired of being controlled by them?”

  Andrew felt a familiar well of embarrassment surface in the pit of his stomach. “Um, well, sure.” He heard the alert sound for the front door. Marcel had left. He swallowed. “I’m not that bad. I mean, I control it all right.”

  “I’m not trying to be insulting.”

  “Trying or not, you’re succeeding,” Andrew said. “Let me up.”

  Matthew squeezed him tight. “I’m sorry.” He kissed his cheek and released him. “Forgive me?”

  Andrew sighed. “Of course. It’s all right.” He rolled out of bed.

  “So you want to grab a shower before Marcel gets back with breakfast?” Matthew asked, clearly seeking a subject change.

  “I think I will. Are you going to express order those clothes?”

  Matthew grabbed his phone and brought up the net screen. “Doing it now.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to say that the shower had room for the both of them, but he decided against it. Maybe they needed a little separation. Maybe he was being too clingy. Both field agents needed to know he wasn’t some wilting flower. He had been living on his own, dealing on his own, since he was a child. He didn’t need them, though he wanted them.

  He turned and made his way into the bathroom, the lights flickering to life as he crossed the threshold. They were motion activated. He looked at himself in the mirror and wondered if they could even make this work in the “real” world, as Marcel had put it. When they’d had nothing to lose, it had seemed like nothing to fall into bed and a little bit in love with the two of them. However, the relationship was far from simple. It wasn’t like Jim and Jason who had brought a third man into their relationship at their mutual desire. They were all relative strangers, and none of them had seriously considered a three-way relationship.

  Can we do this? He turned from the mirror before walking over to the shower unit and programming the temperature.

  “Hey, Andrew?” Matthew asked from the doorway.

  Andrew looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

  Matthew shifted from foot to foot. “This is weird huh? Being back here?”

  “A little. Everything seemed easier there.” As strange a concept as it was, it was easier to put away normal concerns in a war zone than when they were in the safes.

  Matthew nodded. “So…about this date?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think that maybe we could all order some take-out and watch a movie tonight? You know, to see how things go.”

  Andrew smiled. “I’d like that. How about you come in here and shower with me?” He brushed off his earlier idea of proving his independence by showering by himself. There was no point in closing himself off now.

  “Yeah?” Matthew looked relieved. “I didn’t want to seem…”

  Andrew’s lips twitched. “Clingy?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Get in,” he said, laughing. He should’ve known that Matthew wouldn’t be judging him. Matthew and Marcel had been nothing but accepting of him.

  He climbed into the shower and was immediately ensconced in the welcoming warmth of the steam bath. He’d had his bathrooms specially designed to be warm, welcoming, and completely surrounding. It had two showerheads and a special marble that heated so no one had to sit on a cold seat when they wanted to just breathe in the steam.

  “This is gorgeous,” Matthew complimented. “It’s big enough for two easily.”

  “But not three,” Andrew said. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to update. The unit adjacent to mine is vacant. I wonder if I could buy it and make a roman bath sort of area. Or better yet, expand my garden. I’d love to mash the two and make a pool area in my garden.” He loved redoing his place. Nothing was original to when he moved in. Every instance he had significant time off from races, he expanded or redid his existing spaces.

  Matthew laughed. “This place is pretty massive as is. What are you going to do with all that room by yourself?”

  “Maybe I won’t be by myself,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have to have enough room for a family.” He tilted his head back into the spray and let the warm water caress his scalp. He’d never really thought about bringing anyone here, living with anyone else. He was naturally a very private person, and he imagined he was harder to live with than most. But it was easy to see Marcel and Matthew fitting in here.

  That seemed to give Matthew pause. “So I haven’t blown it yet?”

  “No way.”

  “Good.” He wrapped his arms around Andrew’s waist and stepped forward until their bodies aligned perfectly. His naked body rubbed against Andrew as the water cascaded around them, and Andrew couldn’t help but respond to the touch. His cock hardened. Considering how little sexual contact he’d had prior to the run, he was getting downright spoiled by this amount of attention.

  “Hey, Marcel’s not here.” Was it okay to do sexual stuff without Marcel being there?

  Matthew chuckled. “Well, we’ll have to treat him when he gets back from the store. Don’t worry. Between the two of us, we should be able to make him feel far from left out.” He kissed the place where his neck met his shoulder. “Do you think we could manage it?”

  “Yes,” Andrew breathed. “I think we can manage.”

  Matthew turned him around so his chest was exposed to the spray. He rubbed his cock against the swell of Andrew’s ass while his hands kneaded his shoulders before circling around to tease his nipples. Andrew gasped, his head falling back against Matthew’s shoulder.

  He wasn’t sure how long Marcel had been standing there, watching them. But the level of need in his voice told him that he’d been there long enough to be aroused by the sight. The familiar tones of his other lover twisted his arousal deeper. “You’ll need slick for this,” Marcel rumbled.

  “Hmmm, you’re so right. Bring some in with you,” Matthew said, nibbling the curve of Andrew’s neck.

  “Not enough room in there.”

  Matthew raised his head. “Not enough to bathe but plenty to fuck, Marcel.”

  Apparently he didn’t need convincing, because there was no further argument. A very naked Marcel stepped into the shower. He must’ve ditched his clothes when he’d first stumbled across them and that was just fine with Andrew. Almost instantly Andrew settled into his skin, a sense of rightness filling him. Matthew pinched his nipples, and he groaned, his dick jerking.

  “I love that sound,” Marcel said, his voice a low growl.

  Matthew’s hand ghosted down to circle his prick. “Bet he feels even better wrapped around your dick. How do you feel about a little appetizer before breakfast, Andrew?”

  “Hell yes,” Andrew gasped, arching into his grip.

  “Good,” Matthew said. “Marcel, get in front of him and lean against the wall. We’ll put our beauty’s mouth to good use.”

  Andrew enjoyed being a vessel for their pleasure. I could really get used to this. He let Matthew pull him back so Marcel could maneuver in front of him. Yeah. I definitely need to expand my bathroom. He bent at the waist through the water and sucked the head of his lover’s cock in without preamble. Shock crossed his face an instant before he groaned. Almost instantly the salty taste of pre-cum filled his mouth.

  “God, Andy,” Marcel rumbled. “Give me a second will you?”

  He smirked around the dick in his mouth. Not on your life. He may have been the one getting fucked, but he was far from helpless against his two hunky field agents. Matthew’s hand came down on his backside with a crack. He wiggled his ass as the sting invaded his body. He definitely didn’t mind the slight pain.

  Matthew chuckled. “Ooh, he’s getting saucy.”

  “Hmm, I don’t mind,” Marcel said. Andrew decided to ignore the both of them and instead turned his
attention to driving them both insane with his body. He bobbed harder on Marcel’s cock and tilted his hips up in a way that hopefully tempted Matthew to do more than tease him with his hands. Maybe later they’d get around to exploring his toy chest that he had shoved under his bed. Lonely nights and front door delivery had given him quite the collection of things to play with. The idea made his already-aching cock drip more pre-cum.

  Matthew finally gave into his unspoken wishes and sank slickcovered fingers into his heat. He gasped with his mouth full, arching back into the motion. Marcel groaned above him. The steam from the shower was all around them now, blanketing the world in a soft, white fog and muffling the sounds of their pleasure while the water cascaded down from the two showerheads. Matthew fucked him with his fingers for a while before he seemed to reach the end of his patience. He spread Andrew’s cheeks and sank into his ass with one deep, hard thrust.

  Andrew cried out around Marcel’s cock and Marcel echoed the sound. It felt so good to be filled up, to be taken by his two lovers. The position left him vulnerable to whatever they wanted to do to him, and he loved it, loved being wanted. His mind unfocused as Matthew started to move, pounding into him with a hunger that translated perfectly through his needy groans of want. Marcel was close, his pre-cum already enough to fill Andrew’s mouth.

  “Wanted you so long,” Marcel admitted, thrusting forward and fucking his face. Andrew relaxed his throat and took him deeper. He cried out. Yes. Yes. Mine. Both of you are mine. He felt the rightness of it settle into his bones. When they were together like this, he had no doubts that they belonged together. Everything about them called to him, and he knew instinctively that they felt the same. “God, so hot. Watching you be filled with his prick, baby.”

  His words ratcheted up the tension, driving him closer to the edge of orgasm without even touching his dripping cock. Matthew palmed his ass, squeezing the globes of flesh as he held them open for deeper penetration. Andrew moaned, sure that the man was fucking him deeper than anyone ever had. “Come in his mouth, Mar,” Matthew rumbled. “Fill him up while I fill up his ass.”

  Marcel cried out in answer, his dick jerking before erupting in the back of Andrew’s throat. He nearly choked, trying to keep up with the flow. He swallowed compulsively, needing to not spill a drop. Matthew gasped a warning from behind him, slamming deep. The movement set off Andrew’s own orgasm, and he writhed between them like a skewered fish. He shot, his spunk hitting the swirling water below and being taken away by the flow. His mind blanked on sensory overload. This was exactly what he needed, a reaffirmation of the explosive connection they’d had out in the field. It let him know that he hadn’t imagined it all along.

  Finally, they all sagged, finished.

  Marcel sighed softly, pulling his arousal from Andrew’s mouth. “Thank you,” he whispered. “You’re both perfect.” Matthew pulled out of him, and they cradled him between them. Andrew was floating in a world of bliss, basking in their shared moment. He let them hold him under the spray and wash him with soft, gentle hands. It felt so good that he was nearly boneless by the time they tipped his head back and washed the shampoo from his hair.

  He smiled at them languidly. “Take turns?” Matthew nodded and pushed Marcel back into the spray. He protested at first, but between the two of them giving him insistent touches, he relaxed almost immediately after they started scrubbing him clean.

  By the time they were finished, all three of them were squeaky clean and relaxed. Andrew stepped out of the shower first and grabbed them all towels to dry off with. Time had seemed to stop as they got ready together, and Andrew couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that their breakfast had probably gotten cold in the intervening time. When he voiced the thought aloud, Marcel just laughed.

  “More than worth some cold pancakes, Andy,” he said, smiling. “Besides, that’s what a microwave is for.”

  Andrew sighed. They were really perfect. He just hoped the real world wouldn’t ruin what they had.

  Chapter Nine

  Matthew listened impatiently to the phone ring as he waited for his dad to pick up. His text messages in the past two days had gone unanswered, and he was starting to worry. Big time. What if the higher-ups did something because he let us go? He banished the thought and the question as soon as he had it. He couldn’t think like that.

  He was sitting in one of the wooden benches in Andrew’s garden, staring up into a cloudless sky while the city glittered below. Between the soft sound of water from the pond and the softness of the grass beneath his feet, he should’ve been relaxed. He wasn’t.

  He stared down at the lit pond and watched the koi fish as they circled close to the bulbs before turning into the darker bits of the water. Andrew had four of them, and all of them were huge and beautifully colored. They’d picnicked out here more than once for lunch and fed them. Matthew had agreed that this part of the house was his favorite. He’d hoped being here would release some of the tension he was feeling.

  The answering machine kicked on. “Hello, you’ve reached Jack Gibson. If you leave a message after the tone, I will return your call as soon as possible. If this is Matthew, I love you and call my office line if you need me.” Beep.

  Matthew sighed. “Hey, Dad, it’s me. I tried your office phone, and it’s been disconnected. Where are you? You said you’d get in contact with me when we got back to the safes. I haven’t heard from you, and I’m starting to worry. Please, if you have to, send me an e-mail, anything. I’m where I told you I’d be with my team. Love you.” He hung up the phone. He had left the message deliberately cryptic in case someone was fielding his calls. Though it didn’t really matter if he told them where he was or not. The UMF could find anyone, given enough motivation. The safes weren’t that terribly large overall. However, if he got an e-mail from him that wasn’t from their secret account, he’d know that someone was fielding his calls. That was something, at least.

  Someone put a hand on his shoulder, and he half turned to see Marcel there with a sympathetic look on his face. “No word?”

  He shook his head. “No.” He swallowed. “I can’t help but have this bad feeling about it. What if he…” He trailed off, unable to finish.

  “Don’t think about it like that, Matthew. You can’t. It’ll drive you crazy,” Marcel said. He circled around the bench and sat beside him, twining their fingers. “They have no reason to do anything to him. He’s probably just on a base where the clearance won’t let him call out. What we stumbled across was big.”

  Matthew nodded. He was right. “Yeah, I know. It just doesn’t make me feel any better. I just want to know. He’s—” He swallowed, hard. “He’s all I have.”

  Marcel squeezed his hand. “You have us now.”

  Yeah. He did. It was weird to think about it. In the past few days, they’d spent every waking moment together. He’d learned a lot about them, their likes, dislikes, their fears, their loves. He was already starting to fall head over ass in love with them, if he were being honest with himself. However, he wanted to share that with his dad, wanted to let him know that he wasn’t going to be alone when he was gone. It was one of his dad’s biggest fears.

  He leaned his head down to rest against Marcel’s shoulder. “I just want to talk to him. We didn’t say a proper good-bye.” He knew it was stupid. A lot of people in their line of work never got to say good-bye to loved ones. However, he and his dad had always managed to make all those parting moments count. The last time had felt too stilted and unreal. He wanted to go back and undo it and make it right. Of course that was impossible.

  “Hey,” Marcel said, lifting his head with a finger to his chin. He pressed a kiss to his lips. “There is no reason to say good-bye. Until we know otherwise, your dad is fine, and we’ll all have to do the ‘meeting the parents’ thing with him soon.”

  In the past few days it had become abundantly clear that the three of them had set roles in their relationship. Marcel was definitely the caretaker. He made sure th
ey were all okay at any given time. Andrew’s role was easy to tell as well. He was the heart of everything. He was their emotional pillar, easily telling both of the field agents that expressing their emotions was necessary to their survival. Beyond that, he brought out their softer sides, if Matthew cared to admit it. He frowned. He still wasn’t quite sure where he fit into the picture, but he felt like he did.

  “We can get through anything together,” Marcel continued. “You just have to lean on us, Matthew. Okay?”

  He nodded. “Okay.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Where’s Andrew?”

  “Setting up the movie in the living room. There is a bug in the viewer that keeps pixelating the screen. He’s trying to fix it. He sent me out here to check on you, though, said you needed me.”

  It was uncanny how well they knew him. There were people who he’d known his whole life who didn’t know him like they did. “Do you think we could go grab a movie at one of the theaters instead? I want to get out of the house.”

  Marcel hesitated. “You know Andrew doesn’t like going out.”

  Matthew shrugged. “I know it’s one of his fears, but it’s late. The theater shouldn’t be that crowded, and besides, we’ll be there. He trusted us to protect him before. And if he says no, I’ll just go for a walk or something.”

  Andrew’s voice sounded from the doorway behind them. “How about a jog? I need to stretch my legs. After, we can grab a movie.”

  Matthew turned. “You sure? I don’t want to push.” Though he did. Andrew had let his fear control him for a long time, and Matthew knew he might never get over it. However, there were some things that he knew Andrew wanted to do that he didn’t do because of his fear. If he faced it a little, Matthew imagined it would become more manageable over time.

  “I want to go to the movies with you guys, order popcorn, something. I pull myself together to go to races. I should be able to do it to do something with my lovers, right?”

  There is my strong boy. Matthew smiled at him encouragingly. “That’s the theory.”