by Неизвестный
"Hey, Boone," Cort called out as he jogged up to Boone. He wanted to catch the man before he reached the house. "Can I ask you something?"
Boone paused, then turned to face him. "Yeah, sure, you can ask me anything."
"Do you think we're going to have to move to Nix's home now that we're mated?"
Boone's eyebrows furrowed, and the corner of his mouth pulled down in a frown. "I don't know. I mean, she is a Princess and all. She has some sort of duties, I'm sure." Boone shrugged. "I guess we'll have to discuss it with Nix."
"How do you feel about that?"
"About moving with Nix?"
Cort nodded.
Boone glanced around. Cort knew he had to be mistaken, but it seemed to him like Boone was trying to avoid looking at him. But that couldn't be right. They were best friends. They had always been able to discuss anything.
"Boone?"
"If Nix needs us to move, then we'll move, but I won't go without you," Boone finally said. "She's mated to both of us, and I can't do this without you there. Nix needs both of us, not just one of us."
Cort frowned. "Of course, I thought that was assumed." It bothered Cort that it wasn't. They were a team. They did this together or not at all.
Boone nodded, again avoiding Cort's eyes. "We'll do whatever we need to do then."
Cort watched Boone walk into the house feeling more confused than he had when he first walked out to talk to the man. Boone was acting weird, and Cort didn't understand why. Granted, the last couple of weeks had been crazy, but that didn't explain Boone's behavior.
Cort went up the steps and into the house. He walked through the door just in time to see Boone walk down the hallway toward their room. He would have been suspicious if Nix hadn't been sitting in the living room talking with Dane.
As he looked over to stare at Nix, Cort began to wonder if he'd read this situation all wrong. Maybe Boone was upset because he didn't want to share Nix with him. Cort wasn't sure how he felt about that beyond disappointed.
Boone and Cort had shared so much over the years, women, a career, even a living space. Hell, they slept in the same room. Cort wasn't aware of anything they hadn't shared together. There wasn't anything he had that he wouldn't give to Boone.
It pained him to think there was finally something Boone didn't want to share with him. Granted, Nix was a beautiful woman, gorgeous even, but Cort never thought he and Boone would argue over a woman.
Cort watched Nix for another moment, then stormed down the hallway to the bedroom he shared with Boone. He'd be damned if he'd let some woman, even one he was mated to, tear them apart. Boone was his best friend, and he'd do whatever needed to be done to keep him, even if it meant knocking some sense into the man.
He pushed the bedroom door open and walked in. Boone faced the window, but jumped and turned around when Cort slammed the door shut. He looked confused and just a bit wary.
"What in the fuck is wrong with you?" Cort snarled. He could feel anger fighting with his better judgment. He knew that shouting wasn't the way to reach Boone. It just made the man angry. Still, Cort was having trouble controlling himself. He felt like he was fighting for something that meant more than anything to him, his friendship with Boone.
"What are you talking about?" Boone asked. "There's nothing wrong with me."
"Bullshit!" Cort snapped as he crossed the room to stand in front of Boone. He jabbed his finger into Boone's chest as he continued. "You've got some sort of bug up your ass, and I want to know what it is."
Boone grabbed Cort's finger and flung it away as he started to turn. "Don't be ridiculous. Just because you feel guilty, don't take it out on me."
"Guilty," Cort shouted. "What in the hell do I have to feel guilty about? I didn't do anything wrong."
"Well, neither did I, so stop fucking yelling at me."
Cort's lips thinned as he clenched his jaw together. He felt an overwhelming urge to punch Boone right in his lying mouth. Cort could tell something was wrong. Boone still wouldn't look directly at him.
"Is it Nix?" Cort asked. "Are you mad because I want you to share her with me?"
Boone laughed bitterly. "Christ, no," he said. "I've never had any problem sharing women with you. You know that."
"Then what is it, Boone?" Cort asked, his voice much softer this time. He truly wanted to know. He needed Boone in his life. He couldn't even imagine a future that didn't have him in it. Cort stepped over to Boone again and grabbed the man's arm to pull him around. He wanted to see Boone's face. "Why won't you look at me?"
Boone just shook his head and pulled away. He didn't say anything. Cort felt like the ground beneath him was being pulled out from under his feet. "Boone? Please, talk to me. Tell me what's going on."
Boone walked over to his bed and sat down. He seemed to be staring down at his hands, twisting his fingers together nervously. Cort couldn't stand the dejected look Boone had on his face. It made his heart ache for the man.
Cort walked over and sat down next to Boone. He waited for Boone to say something, anything, but the man just sat there staring at his hands. Cort didn't know what to say or even how to get Boone to talk to him. He went with the only thing he could think of.
"If she means that much to you, I can step out of the picture, Boone," he said quietly. "I don't ever want a woman to come between us. I guess I just thought we'd share her like we always have."
"Naw, it's not that," Boone finally said. His voice was quiet, almost a murmur, but Cort heard him anyway. "I wouldn't want to have Nix without you in the picture. I've kind of gotten used to sharing with you."
"Then what is it?" Cort asked. "Did I do something? If it's about earlier, I'm sorry, man. I lost my temper. I didn't mean to. I just walked into the room and saw the two of you together, and my head kind of twisted off my shoulders, you know?"
Boone chuckled and glanced up at him. Cort saw that as a good thing. It made him feel a little better even if he still didn't understand exactly what upset Boone.
"It wasn't anything you did, Cort, I swear."
"Something I didn't do then?" Cort expected Boone to say no. He was surprised when the man just shrugged his shoulders and went back to looking down at his hands. Was there something he should have done that he didn't? "Boone, wha—"
"It doesn't matter, Cort," Boone said. "Please, just drop it."
"I don't want to drop it, Boone," Cort replied. "I've obviously upset you somehow, and I want to know how. What didn't I do?" Cort racked his brain trying to figure out if he had missed something. He couldn't think of anything.
"Drop it, Cort," Boone said as he jumped to his feet and started pacing around the room. Cort just stared at him, shocked by Boone's behavior. There was obviously a lot more going on here than he initially thought. Boone never got this upset with him.
Cort stood and stepped toward the man. "Boone, wha—"
"I said drop it, Cort," Boone snapped, finally turning to look at him. "Can't you take a fucking hint? I don't want to discuss it."
"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Even as he asked the question, Cort felt a sense of déjà vu. Hadn't he already asked that? He almost expected Boone to give him the same lame answer he had the last time.
He was shocked when Boone leapt across the space between them and grabbed him by his shirt, slamming him into the wall. Cort's mouth dropped open when Boone leaned in close to him and growled.
"I told you that I didn't want to talk about it, but you just had to push it, didn't you?"
Cort's mouth snapped shut. He struggled against Boone, but even the slight height and weight advantage he had over the man didn't seem to faze Boone. He just slammed Cort back up again the wall.
"You want to know what my fucking problem is, Cort?" Boone snapped. "You, okay? It's you."
"Me?" Cort choked out.
"Yes, you. I could give a fuck about sharing Nix with you. I've shared a lot of women with you. That doesn't bother me." Boone seemed to take a deep breath as his pale gre
en eyes bored into Cort. "My problem is that I don't want to share you, okay?"
"Me?" Cort squeaked again, his mind reeling. What in the hell was Boone talking about? Had he lost his mind? Was the activation of his recessive gene affecting him somehow?
"I've wanted you since about three minutes after I first laid eyes on you," Boone growled quietly. "I've hidden it all these years because I knew you'd never want me in the same way. I was happy just to have you in my life as my friend. But now, now we're mated to the same woman, and it's a whole other ball game."
Shock rolled through Cort, not so much from his words, but from the hard cock he could feel pressed up against him. Boone wasn't lying.
"Now, for the rest of my life, I have to watch you love someone else. I can't even leave because if I do, Nix could die. I have to watch you love her and touch her and wish that it was me. And I can never fucking get away from it." Boone's voice cracked. Cort watched tears form in his eyes for the first time ever. "And I have to pretend that I'm okay with it, that I'm happy just being your friend because I know if you ever found out, you'd want nothing to do with me."
Cort almost jerked when Boone's hand softly brushed his cheek. "And now you do, and—" Boone shook his head. Cort could feel the man's eyes roam over his face then Boone suddenly leaned in and kissed him, only, it wasn't just a kiss.
It was something that rocked Cort right down to the core of his being. He felt Boone's tongue brush over his lips before he pushed inside to claim him. It was rough and hot and made Cort's toes curl.
Before Cort could respond, Boone pushed away from him with a sharp cry and ran out of the room. Cort stood there for a moment, rubbing his fingers over his lips as he tried to figure out what in the hell had just happened.
By the time Cort got himself under control and figured out that something monumental had just happened between him and Boone, he could hear the truck start up and peel out of the driveway. He knew it was Boone leaving.
Cort slumped against the wall. His mind was chaotic, his emotions swirling. Boone had kissed him. Hell, Boone had rocked his world. Cort could still feel his cock throbbing against his zipper, and he just didn't understand that.
Cort never imagined being with a man, but no woman he ever met, with maybe the exception of Nix, ever made him as hard as Boone did with one simple kiss. Maybe that kiss hadn't been that simple, though. It certainly seemed to have changed the way Cort thought about the world.
He thought back to all of the women he shared with Boone and all of the women he hadn't. It shocked Cort to realize that he never got as turned on by a woman he fucked alone as he did when he fucked one with Boone present. Maybe there was something to that, something he needed to think more about.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Cort looked up to find Nix leaning against the bedroom door frame.
"I just saw Boone tear out of here like the hounds of hell were after him. Did you two have a fight?"
Cort snorted. "Not exactly."
Nix sauntered slowly across the room, stopping right in front of him. She reached up and rubbed her fingers over Cort's swollen lips. "Did Boone kiss you?"
Cort's eyes widened. "How'd you know?"
"Please, that man is so in love with you he can't see straight." Nix smirked. "I'm just surprised he hasn't tried to kiss you before now."
"B-Boone's in love with me?" Cort whispered. Even after the things Boone said and the kiss, Cort never imagined that Boone might be in love with him. He wasn't sure if he was more shocked at the idea or how the idea made him feel.
Nix twirled her finger in her long golden hair and turned to walk around the room. "I imagine Boone's been in love with you for a long time."
"Did he say something to you?"
"No, but it was obvious."
Cort frowned.
Nix rolled her eyes and laughed. "Don't worry, Cort. It was only obvious to me. No one else knows."
"How did you know?"
"I asked."
"You asked?" The look Nix gave him made Cort feel like he was a small child who needed things explained to him in little words. "What happened?"
"I imagine about the same thing that happened just now," Nix said. "Boone got upset and stormed out."
"Why?"
Nix peered at him closely. "You really don't know, do you?"
Cort shook his head.
"Cort, Boone's afraid of losing you. He'd rather have you as a friend than not at all." Nix shrugged. "From the reaction I got, I'd bet that Boone has been in love with you for quite a while."
Cort's mind reeled. He sat down heavily on the side of the bed. "I don't…I don't know what to say."
Nix sat down next to him and grabbed his hand, holding it firmly in hers. "Does it surprise you that much?" she asked. "You had to have suspected something. No one is that good at hiding their feelings."
Cort snorted. "Well, apparently, Boone is. I never had a clue."
"Now that you do, how do you feel?"
"Confused," Cort answered, "bewildered."
Nix's free hand landed on his hard cock. "Horny?"
Cort felt his face heat up as he squirmed away from the firm hand that gently squeezed him. "I don't—"
Nix suddenly jumped to her feet to stand in front of Cort, her hands planted firmly on her hips. "Why is it so hard for you men to admit your feelings for each other? It's, like, all you can do to deny each other."
Cort frowned. "Doesn't this bother you?" he asked. "You're talking about me and Boone being together. You're supposed to be our mate. We're supposed to want to be with you, not each other."
"Why should it bother me? And why can't the two of you be together?"
"Well—"
"It's not like I'm suggesting the two of you go off and live happily ever after, leaving me behind. I'm suggesting that the three of us be together, all three of us, at the same time." Nix waved her hand through the air. "Why wouldn't I want to share that with you two?"
Cort's eyes felt like they were about ready to pop out of his head. "You want the three of us to be together at the same time?"
"Yes." Nix's eyes dropped to the bulge in Cort's pants that just hardened even more. "And so do you."
Cort opened his mouth to deny Nix's words, but found that he couldn't in the face of her intense stare. He heaved a huge sigh and nodded his head. "So, okay, I like the idea of the three of us being together at the same time. So what?"
"So, why not make it happen?" Nix asked. "It's not like I have an issue with it."
"Why don't you have an issue with it?"
"The society that I came from is a lot different than this one," Nix replied. Cort watched her as she sat down next to him. "Because of mating, people get hooked up with others that they might never have been attracted to before. It happens. We just learn to deal with it. It's no big deal for two men to be together, or even three or four. It's all part of mating."
"Seriously?" Cort had a hard time believing that considering the way human society treated people in same-sex relationships. Maybe Nix's ivy-covered tower wasn't that bad.
Nix nodded. "My uncle was mated to a man and a woman. The three of them were together as one unit, not two separate units that were mated. It seemed to work better that way." Nix paused for a moment. "I guess I hoped that the three of us could have that type of relationship."
"You're actually in favor of Boone and I having a sexual relationship?"
"No."
Cort knew it. No woman could be that open-minded.
"I was hoping that whatever developed between you and Boone would be more than sexual," Nix said. "I was hoping that whatever developed between the three of us would be more than sexual."
Cort gaped at Nix. He just couldn't seem to find the thoughts to put into words. He was too confused, too shocked. Nix was giving not only her permission but her encouragement for him to develop a relationship with Boone.
Nix knelt down on the floor between Cort's thighs and looked up at him. "Wouldn't tha
t be better?" she asked. "Yes, I hope that the affection we all feel for each other turns into something more concrete. I have every intention of falling in love with my mates, if I haven't already."
"You love me?" Cort whispered.
"I'm getting there. Obviously from my behavior you can tell that I'm attracted to you. I was before I even knew we were mates. But I want more than that." Nix smiled as she stroked her hand across Cort's thighs. "I want love and romance and affection and caring. I want it all, and I want it with you and Boone."
"Nix, I—"
Nix chuckled and patted his hand. "Not to worry, Cort. I don't expect you to give me words of love at this point in our relationship. That type of commitment takes time. I'm just hoping you'll be willing to give us that time."
"You seem very understanding about all of this," Cort said, frowning. "Why is that?"
"Can you imagine how sexy it will be for me to see the two of you together knowing I can join in anytime I want to?" Cort's eyes widened when Nix purred. "Two sexy men loving on each other? Yum!"
"You think that's sexy?" he choked out past the sudden lump in his throat.
"Oh hell yeah." Nix grinned. Her hand started massaging the bulge in Cort's pants. "Can't you imagine it, Cort? Boone fucking me with that beautiful cock of his while you fuck him?"
Cort groaned at the vivid picture that filled his mind. He fell back on the bed and closed his eyes, too overwhelmed to do anything but let Nix build the fantasy for him.
"Or maybe you'll be the one fucking me while Boone fucks you?" Cort could feel Nix's breath blow across his throat as she leaned closer. He heard his zipper go down. A moment later, Nix's hand wrapped around his hard cock. "Would you like that, Cort? Would you like to feel Boone sink his big, thick cock into your ass? Can you imagine how good it would feel to fuck Boone while he's fucking me?"
Cort could feel the pressure of Nix's hand around his hard shaft. Suddenly, something warm and wet wrapped around Cort's cock. He imagined it was Boone's ass as he slowly sank into him.
One lick of Nix's tongue across the small slit in the head of Cort's cock and one swipe of her lips was all it took for Cort to cry out, shooting spurt after spurt of seed into her mouth as an orgasm ripped through him.