Alexis shifted next to him, disturbed by his movements, no doubt. He rubbed his face against Colt’s chest, forcing himself to hold back a groan at what Alex had no clue was an inappropriate moment.
“Alex,” he said in a hushed tone, not wanting to startle the man. “Alex, get up.”
Alex’s eyes flashed open in what Colton could only describe as sheer panic. Eyes wide, face reddening like mad, and the gears in his head turning as he was probably recounting every moment of the night that he regretted. There it went, his perfect morning flying out the window with Bleu’s absence and Alex’s blatant remorse for what he’d done.
He pushed away from Alex, not wanting him to panic any more or try to come up with some lame excuse to get away from him. “Alexis, get dressed.” His voice was considerably rougher this time. God, that look on his face had hurt. They needed Bleu here, where was she?
“I don’t want to get up.” Colt felt a warm hand stroke his back and he couldn’t stop the shiver. Alexis chuckled behind him. He was a good man, playing this off like it was nothing. Colton stood and hurriedly put his jeans on.
“I think Bleu is gone.”
Alex sat up, ruffling his hair and rubbing the morning crud out of his eyes. The sheet pooled enticingly at his hips. “No, she’s probably downstairs making coffee.”
“Do you smell coffee?” He gestured around the room. “All her stuff is gone.” Colt spotted a pair of jeans on the dresser and tossed them at Alex. “Get dressed, I’ll check the rest of the house.” Before he could dash out of the room, Alex grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him back toward the bed.
“Stop for a second, please.” The man was pure temptation, kneeling on the bed in just his low-riding boxers, skin a contrast of hardened silk that Colt wanted to lick from head to toe. But what caught him and made him stay in the room was the look of confusion on his face. Fuck, he was such an ass.
Here was a man, coming to terms with his newly discovered sexuality, and the first man the guy kisses and sleeps in a bed with is about to bolt out the door like nothing happened. Like the woman did. What had she been thinking? No. Colton wouldn’t run, no matter how much Alex’s initial reaction to being in bed with him had hurt. He wouldn’t abandon him.
He sighed and moved back toward the bed, cupping Alex’s face between his hands. “Are you OK?”
“Kiss me and I’ll let you know.”
Colton moved in but hesitated, not wanting to see that look of panic again. “You sure?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.” Then the man who not two minutes ago had panicked at the sight of another man in his bed, brought his lips to Colt’s and kissed him like it was the only kiss in the world that had ever mattered. It was beautiful and sexy and wanton. The simple touch of his lips and texture of his stubble were so overwhelmingly decadent against his skin, he needed to rest his shins against the bed for fear of falling over from weak knees. The motion brought him closer, causing their ever-present erections to skim. This time Colton did groan.
The kiss was everything, but it could be even more.
“We need her back,” Alexis whispered, pulling away and letting his head rest in the crook of his shoulder. “I love kissing you…and next time we kiss I want to pull your shorts down and squeeze your cock while doing it.” Putting words to action, Alex skimmed his hand inside Colt’s pants and squeezed his pulsing length.
“Oh fuck.” Colton wrapped his arm around Alex’s waist and pulled him in tight to his body, trapping his hand between them. Teeth nipped at Colton’s jaw.
“This is so new and amazing but—”
“I know. It’s not—”
“Complete,” Alex finished. He pulled back. “Is she really gone? Why did she leave? I thought last night was…” He shrugged.
“I don’t know. I mean she could have just brought her stuff downstairs and is now making us an awesome breakfast.”
Alexis snorted. “Please, she knows not to cook in my house.”
Despite the situation, Colton laughed. “One day we are going to tie you down and make you watch as we cook in your kitchen. And then, the worst punishment of all, you’ll eat whatever it is we make.”
Alexis grabbed Colt’s waist and pulled him in close, giving him a quick nip on his bottom lip. “I’d rather die.”
“The sad thing is I know you’re not joking. C’mon, get dressed, oh King Cock of the Kitchen.”
“Fucking right I’m the king,” he heard Alex mutter as he pulled some clothes on.
Once dressed, the men ran downstairs. After seeing that Bleu’s car was gone, they knew that the damn woman had indeed left them. They were none too happy about this fact.
“Alex,” Colton called after spotting the note taped to the door,
Colt stood reading the note with his hands on his hips and head cocked to the side. Alex’s hands circled his waist and his chin came to rest on his shoulders.
“How much of this note do you think is bullshit?” Colton asked Alex.
“I really want to believe all of it is bullshit.” He pulled away from Colt and tugged the letter off the door. “Do you get the feeling that even though she told us everything about herself…she still hasn’t told us anything about herself? Does that makes sense?” Alex walked to the kitchen table and sat down in front of the cup of coffee he’d made after their initial search. Colt sat across from him with an equally strong cup. “I mean, she goes around, shamelessly advertising that she’s a former drug addict but she doesn’t tell us she uses a hearing aid? After everything else she blurts out you’d think that would be the easy part.”
“I don’t know. The more we’re exposed to those bits of her, the physical evidence, the harder it would probably be to keep us distant. Then leaving us after”—Colt glanced at the note for her exact words—“getting us together, would be easier?”
“Or maybe she didn’t realize she was doing it. Maybe she’s created this persona for herself as the survivor. She has to set an example for her NA meetings and be strong. The scars are a weakness so she covers them. The use of a hearing aid is another scar.” Alex took a long swig of his coffee before slamming it down on the table and shaking his head. “No. I refuse to believe everything she said and the way she reacted to us last night was an act to get us together. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and we’re going after her.”
Colton was insanely turned on at Alex’s commanding tone. “Maybe we should call her first and ask?” he added as a last ditch attempt to keep them from going caveman on her.
“No. I won’t give her the chance to come up with another lame excuse. When we went into this it was the three of us. Three.”
“Am I not enough?” Colt instantly hated himself for asking the question. He knew they needed Bleu, hell he knew it probably would never work with Alex without her. Her quirky nature balanced them so well.
“What? No…” Alex sighed and sat back down at the table, hesitantly taking Colt’s hands in his. “I feel such intense things for you, Colt. But I feel the same things for her. If we have to, if Bleu is truly not looking for a relationship with us, then of course I still want to be with you. But we went into this a threesome, including you. I thought that’s how it was going to stay. What do you think? Do you want to go after her?”
“Fuck yeah I do,” he said with a cocky wink. “I was just checking.”
Alex laughed, pulling Colton from the table. “You’re such a dick.”
* * * *
Alex needed to check on the diner first and make sure the renovations were going smoothly. By early afternoon Colton and Alex pulled up to the tattoo parlor where Bleu worked, Alex at the wheel of his car. They saw her little car parked in one of the side lots, confirming she was there. Alex had also gone a bit stalker on her, as Colton had so kindly referred to it, and called the shop ahead of time to see if she was working. The receptionist had said she wasn’t taking walk-ins but that she was there.
“That right there proves something’s up
. She loves walk-ins,” Colton said after Alex had relayed the message. Alex agreed. Something had freaked her out and they needed to cut the problem off at the head without it growing three more.
“Let’s go make our girl realize we are clearly the best things she has going in her life and she would be an idiot to give this up,” Alex said after parking in a side alley and getting out of the car.
“Say it just like that, please. I need some entertainment and you getting kicked in the balls would definitely fill my quota for the month.” Colt laughed.
“Laugh now, but you like my balls.”
Colton winked, offering his hand.
Alex’s breath caught. They had been at the parlor before but never like this. Never as a couple…or trouple, triad…whatever. His hand reached and linked with Colton’s. It felt good. Right. They needed Bleu to see this, see that they weren’t a fleeting thing and that she was part of it, that what they shared last night had been real and lasting and that she was already involved so deep there could be no backing out. Like the mafia.
Colton pulled him through the door and the sounds of tattoo guns buzzing through the air greeted their ears. He surveyed the large and open space, looking for the distinctive teal and blue hair.
“There.” Colton pointed with his free hand and sure enough, there she was. Her back to them and sitting at a work desk that was clearly set aside for sketching, her right hand glided across a piece of paper for a moment before she huffed loudly, balled it up, and threw it in a trash can. Or at least that’s what she had attempted to aim for. Instead, the ball of paper landed with its discarded mates, outside and around the can. He could almost see the air of tension surrounding her, warding off the customers and fellow tattoo artists.
Alex was dumbfounded. Not once in the months they had known her could he remember seeing her in a bad mood. It hurt to think they had done something to make her feel this way. A man sitting in the waiting area that looked vaguely familiar kept looking at them and then back at Bleu, his eyebrows knitting together and furrowing in a frown.
“Hey,” he mock whispered, gesturing Colt and Alex over. They walked silently, not wanting to tip off Bleu that they were here and have her anger directed at them.
“What the fuck?” the guy asked them in a hushed and harsh tone. “Why is she so pissed? I haven’t seen her this moody since rehab. What did you do to her, you wankers?” The man had what Alex could only describe as an Irish brogue.
“Us? Why do you think it’s us that did this?” Colton exclaimed in a harried rush.
“She was with you eejits yesterday evening, so I’m assuming it was you that put her in a right pissed mood.” He waved his hand in their faces cutting Alex off before he could defend himself and Colt. “No, I don’t give a fuck who actually pissed her off or why, but you need to make it right. Both of you. I have been waiting on whatever the fuck it is she’s doing over there for three hours. I want my new tattoo finished. Fix this. Now!” With that he turned back to his magazine and promptly ignored them.
Colton sighed, rubbing his fingers through his hair. “Do you know what we did?” he asked Alex.
“No…all we did was sleep. And give her what seemed like a really great orgasm,” Alex replied in a hushed tone. “How is that a bad thing?” He didn’t like cowering in fear from their blue-haired angel. They were twice the size of her. Were they men or weren’t they? This was pathetic. “C’mon. This is ridiculous.” He took Colton’s hand and walked across the floor toward her.
“Whoever is stomping around on my beautiful hardwood floors needs to get the fuck out of my shop,” she said without raising her voice, making it all the more scary how much he wanted to heed her command. So maybe he wasn’t as much of a big man as he thought. The other artists kept on their tattooing but it was clear they were keeping an eye out for trouble. The tension in the air was palpable. Alexis set his shoulders and continued toward her. This time he deliberately stomped harder.
She rapidly stood and turned, venom in her voice. “Are you deaf or just stupi—”
Alex heard Colton suck in a breath, no doubt as worried about her appearance as he was. There were deep purple bags under her eyes like she hadn’t slept for weeks instead of just one night. Her hair was slightly greasy and frizzy at the same time. Her skin was paler than usual, save the bright spots of red anger on her cheeks. The hazel eyes he loved that could drown you in warmth and love were hollow and red. It was as if her spark had been extinguished. This wasn’t their Bleu. For half a second Alex feared the worst, that whatever they had done had made her spin so badly out of control she went back to the using. He dislodged that theory when reality once again kicked him in the balls and reminded him that Bleu would never dishonor the sacrifice Colton’s father had made for her, no matter how pissed she was. Maybe she had her period or something. Maybe he should never say that to a woman out loud.
“Hey,” Colton spoke beside him, giving his hand a squeeze to jolt him out of his thoughts. “We thought you didn’t have work today.”
She made a haphazard attempt to smooth down her hair and straighten out her clothes, the same clothes she had been wearing the night before. Only more wrinkled.
“Um. I didn’t, technically.” She shrugged, left hand rising compulsively to tuck underneath her hair and rub her scarred ear. “But I’ve been meaning to finish this thing for Liam’s new tat for a while so…”
“Why didn’t you tell us you were leaving?” Colt asked with a look on his face that nearly broke Alex’s heart.
“I did. I, um, left you a note.” A snort of laughter came from one of the other tattoo artists and Bleu shot him a quick glare. He shut up pretty quickly.
“Thanks for that,” Alex said, not keeping the bite out of his tone. He dropped Colton’s hand and moved closer to her. He could see her swallow as she backed into her desk, attempting to keep away from him. He lowered his voice so only Colt and Bleu could hear him. “Thanks for just leaving us after what happened.”
“Don’t say it like that,” she hissed back, timidity leaving her body as she crossed her arms in anger. “I left with both of you in mind. If you had read my note you would have seen that I—”
“Don’t feed me bullshit and call it cake, OK?” Her excuses were painfully obvious. He wasn’t just confused or worried for her anymore. Now he was fucking pissed. And seeing her with her arms crossed and a defiant blaze in her eyes just flipped every damn switch he had in his body. “What did you think last night was to us?”
“It was for you and Colton,” she insisted, her eyes flicking angrily from Colt and back to him. “You needed me for that step that I knew you wanted to take. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alex. It’s OK to want him.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Colton asked, coming up and leaning to the right of them on the desk. He placed one hand on Alex’s shoulder, squeezing hard, and the other on Bleu’s hip. “This is not your NA group, babe. We’re your friends, your lovers. We don’t need you to help us accomplish our life goals. We don’t need you to guide us through some sort of adjustment period. We just need you.”
His hand moved from her hip to her face and gently pushed the limp blue hair away from her ear. She flinched as their skin connected. Alex caught her hands and pinned them to the table before she could move and bat Colt away. He watched with labored breath as Colton leaned in to kiss Bleu’s torn and scarred ear. She shivered and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Just you, Smurfette. We need you. We want you with us. It won’t work right with just Alex and I.”
“But it would work,” she whispered, eyes still shut.
Colton went in for another lick and kiss. “Not the way it could. It was perfection…but only with the three of us.” His hand trailed down Alex’s shoulder until it came upon his hand, still pinning Bleu’s to the table, and rested atop them, joining their three hands together. “When will you ever find that kind of perfect again?”
Alex cupped Bleu’s face with his free hand and p
laced his thumb over her lips to keep her from answering. “This is too good. Don’t be stupid and walk away.”
She snorted and shook her head to dislodge his thumb. “You’re so fucking genteel, ya know that?” She bit her lip and looked away for half a second. When her eyes met Alex’s once more, they were glassy and filled with tears.
“How fucked up am I that I need two men instead of one to satisfy me?” she whispered with a sniffle. But the sadness didn’t last long as a corner of her mouth lifted in a sardonic grin. “Isn’t that greedy?”
Colton smiled and leaned his head against Alex’s shoulder to be included in her line of sight. “The same could be said of Alex and I. But this is what works for us. Can either of you honestly say you’ve ever been truly satisfied in one of your past relationships?”
Alex and Bleu didn’t take longer than a second before shaking their heads.
“OK then,” Colton said with a shrug. As if it were as simple as that. Alex could have loved him right there and then. So he did all he could at that moment to show his appreciation and leaned in to give him a sweet and searing kiss. Alex then turned back to Bleu and finally kissed her as well, pressing her plump lips against his and savoring their taste.
The taste and texture of her body was so different from Colton, it was almost a shock to kiss a female once again. But not an unwelcome one. It was beautiful. The contrasts were so deliciously tempting he had to strive not to grab her by the hips, sit her on the desk, and grind his erection into her. Alex licked against her lips, demanding entrance until she finally opened her mouth with a gasp. He dove in, sucking on her tongue, which wriggled as it tasted his.
A Different Kind of Perfect (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 13