Something New

by Cameron Dane

  “Rodrigo”—Abby rushed up to him and linked her arm through his—“the more I see, the better it gets.” She practically bounced at his side. “Show us the rest.”

  Now comes the flaw that kept it from selling.

  Rodrigo wanted to bask in Abby’s compliments, but radical design choices had cost him six figures and shaken his confidence. He guided her around the bend in the bathroom, past a small vanity area, and then pointed ahead. “Go through that door.”

  Abby did, and it led them straight into a room that mirrored the first. A matching picture window ran the length of the inner wall. On the back wall, French doors opened up into Rodrigo’s backyard. The doors led to an open grassy area with seasonal flowers and foliage, as well as another group of outdoor seating that looked onto an open field as far as the eye could see. This was Rodrigo’s media room; it had plush leather seating on the far end around a big-screen TV mounted to the wall, and it also had a vintage pool table.

  “My goodness, Rodrigo.” Abby spun from the French doors and crossed to the picture window. “Everywhere you look is breathtaking.”

  Before Rodrigo could respond, Braden joined him at the pool table. “But your master bathroom links two rooms,” he said as he leaned his hip against the carved wood.

  “You got it in one.” Rodrigo grimaced. “It’s a somewhat common thing in houses in other countries, but American buyers don’t tend to like double entrances for bathrooms, particularly for a master bathroom. I could have shrunk the width of the bedroom to provide a hallway along the west wall of the house. I could have done that and created a bridge from the front room to here, but the space it would have taken would have encroached on the bedroom’s width by a third, which basically would have put the foot of almost any bed to bumping up against the picture window.”

  Abby crinkled her nose. “It would have killed the wonderful airy vibe in that room.”

  “Absolutely.” Rodrigo wanted to hug her for so immediately picking up on that truth. “And unless I wanted the hallway to be dark, I would have had to put windows on that side wall, and even then, it still would have felt like an old dungeon hallway at night. I made a choice.” He shrugged. “When I took this house on, I knew it would be a risk. It didn’t have any of the practical elements of the homes I usually choose to refurbish. This is basically four big rooms, only one of which is a bedroom, although I suppose someone could choose to make this a bedroom if they wanted to. There is another bathroom on the front end of the house, before you get to the kitchen, but it’s just a half bath.”

  Rodrigo pushed away from the pool table and strolled to the wall of windows, his fingers tucked in his back pockets. He stared, could see into every other room in the house, and had an odd feeling in his belly that it was his child to protect. “When I saw this place, I immediately knew how I’d want to restructure it, and it was too good a bargain to let pass. As we were fixing it up, I could hear the guys mumbling that it wouldn’t appeal to enough people to sell, and they were right. It’s not practical for a family, and the outskirts of Coleman aren’t exactly where couples decide to retire, so that severely limited the buying pool.”

  As if they knew his throat had gone a little bit tight, Abby and Braden moved in on either side of him. He could see a faint reflection of each of them in the window, and that, along with the contact against his sides, allowed Rodrigo to find his voice again. “After about six months on the market, I decided it would make more sense for me to break my apartment lease and move in myself. At first I thought I’d continue to try and sell it, but it has been about four months since I even saw a potential buyer, and I don’t think I want to anymore.”

  “It has your personality stamped all over it.” Abby leaned her head against Rodrigo’s shoulder and looked out at the courtyard Rodrigo hoped guests would think had an inviting ambience. “You don’t want to part with it because you’ve already made it your own.”

  “I have to give you credit, man.” Braden rubbed his big hand across Rodrigo’s shoulders. “I had you pegged all wrong on this place. I thought it would be a cavern with a bed, a couch, and a TV. Instead, you’ve staked a claim on it and made it warm and inviting.” He worked his fingers into Rodrigo’s nape with an inviting massage. “Nice work.”

  Rodrigo suddenly felt ten fucking feet tall. “Do you want to take a closer look at the courtyard?” He reached up and fingered open a lock tucked out of the way at the top of the track. “These walls of windows consist of three panels each and open up for direct access. They do for all four rooms.” The latch gave, and with one push, the center panel silently moved on its track, out of the way. “The fridge behind the bar is stocked, and the pool is heated too.”

  Abby squeezed Rodrigo’s arm, half dragging him outside. “The pool is heated?”

  “Yep.”

  “You thought of everything.” With one move, Abby kicked off her ballet flats and let her shawl fall to the ground. Her gaze going downright sultry, she undid her shirt one button at a time, revealing pale, smooth flesh. “I thought I was hungry but I think all I need right now is something physical to exhaust me away from this day.” One snap of her bra’s front clasp and Abby drew the lacy material aside to reveal her small, perfect breasts. “Come on, boys.” Her jeans and panties disappeared in one smooth motion, leaving her enticingly bare. “I’m not going to be able to work up a big enough sweat all by myself.”

  As Abby dived into the pool, her pale, naked body sliced through the water and moved under the surface in a graceful line. She didn’t come up for air until she reached the other end. When she did, she found the little shelf under the water and perched herself on it. Her sleek arms went wide across the lip of the pool at her back, her fiery hair sat slick against her scalp and down her back, and her blue, blue eyes stole the vibrancy of the pool’s indigo tiles.

  The water bobbed right under Abby’s breasts, and her smile rivaled the late-afternoon sunlight glinting across the pool’s surface. “Coming?”

  His hand on his belt buckle, Rodrigo turned to Braden, his cock stirring as it caught up with his dirty mind. “Do you swim?”

  Braden kicked off a boot. “Hell yeah, I do.”

  Rodrigo let every wicked, immoral thought in his head show in his eyes. “First one in gets to turn her over the side of the pool and fuck her until she can’t walk to the bed on her own.”

  “I heard that,” Abby shouted. In the next second, she rolled over, pushed her pretty ass above the waterline, and looked back at them from over her shoulder. With a wiggle, she practically purred, “I’m waiting.”

  Forget rules or ready, set, go. Rodrigo and Braden dived into the pool at the same time, still fully clothed.

  * * *

  Rodrigo stirred and blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the moonlight streaming into the bedroom. He hadn’t yet gotten used to falling asleep with one person in his bed, let alone two, and had woken up multiple times in the handful of nights since sharing one with Abby and Braden.

  Sleeping in the middle tonight, Rodrigo rolled to his left to check on Abby first. She lay curled on her side, naked and lovely as anything Rodrigo had ever seen. And best of all, sleeping peacefully. She hadn’t slept a full night in God knew how long, but maybe he and Braden had exhausted her enough with their activities outside that she had no room in her brain for nightmares or confusing memories tonight.

  Thank God. Rodrigo rubbed his hand down her arm and accepted the constriction happening in his heart and throat with a minimum of fear for what it meant, even if he couldn’t bring himself to say it yet. Abby didn’t need heartfelt declarations or more emotional baggage thrown at her door right now. She just needs me—us—to have her back. And she needs this uninterrupted rest.

  He dipped down, brushed a kiss against her bare shoulder, and whispered, “You’re gonna be okay, Bit. I promise.”

  A warm, firm weight suddenly blanketed Rodrigo’s back, and a moment later, Braden rested his chin on Rodrigo’s upper arm. “You watch over
her like a warrior, you know.” He reached over and covered Rodrigo’s hand where it rested on Abby’s hip. “You have since the day I met the two of you.”

  Rodrigo felt a small smile appear on his lips as he flashed back to that day in Christian and Jonah’s kitchen, to the sudden appearance of a new alpha male into their lives. “I knew you wanted her. You have a good cop face, but I could fucking smell your desire in that room.” He craned his neck and glared at Braden. “I really didn’t like it.”

  “No shit. You wanted her too badly yourself.” Braden rolled away from Rodrigo’s back, and Rodrigo twisted his neck even further to see the man’s smirk. “Your cock was like a hunting dog pointing at the skittish fox hiding in the bushes.” Braden framed his hands around his own prick and moved in small intervals, as if his dick were searching for a radar signal. “You were already scenting her and didn’t want anyone else marking territory too.”

  “You’re right.” Rodrigo clenched his fingers around Abby’s hip and then yanked his hand away with a silent curse to himself not to wake her up. “I didn’t.”

  His eyes on Rodrigo, Braden shifted onto his side and braced his head on his palm. “Took you a long time to realize I was circling just as hard around you.”

  Braden stared without censure, and Rodrigo swallowed against the dryness taking over his mouth. “Yeah.”

  The man raised a perfectly arched brow. “But you’re getting there now?”

  “Working on it.” Rodrigo let out a long, even breath and tried to control the thumping in his chest. “Still trying to wrap my brain around wanting you just as much as I want her.” He shuttled his gaze back and forth between the soft beauty of Abby to Braden’s efficient hard lines, marveling that they were both happily naked in his bed. Goddamn. He looked back to Braden with a shake of his head. “And that it’s okay with both of you that I do.”

  Braden’s gaze softened and went even paler with the reflection of the moon. “It is, Rigo.” Leaning up, he grazed his lips against Rodrigo’s with a barely there kiss.

  The gentle contact immediately ignited Rodrigo. Everything he’d done these last days—that he’d always considered forbidden—and all the things he’d fantasized about trying flashed before his eyes and shot a reaction straight to his cock.

  Rodrigo grabbed Braden around the neck and kept their mouths close together. “I want you.” He scraped their lips harder and teased with his tongue. “I want you the way you’ve had me.”

  Braden strained against Rodrigo and clung to the kiss. His fingers dug into Rodrigo’s waist and around to his back, pulling Rodrigo on top of him. With eyes shining bright, Braden rubbed his thumb across Rodrigo’s sensitized lips. “You can have me whenever you want me.”

  Closing his eyes for a moment, Rodrigo tried to fight the feel of Braden’s thumb moving against his mouth. He did his best not to revel in their chests, stomachs, and penises crushed against one another or to hear the man’s almost silent catch of breath as Rodrigo rocked into him. Sensation after sensation after sensation kept piling on, though, and overwhelmed Rodrigo.

  Too fucking much.

  Caving into the need for full contact, Rodrigo looked right into Braden’s eyes. “I want you right now,” he said and swooped down, stealing a rough, consuming kiss.

  Braden opened up and accepted Rodrigo’s tongue with an eager, sexy little noise, creating a new flood of testosterone that rushed to every pore and crevice in Rodrigo’s body. The idea that Rodrigo could pull such a response out of a bigger man who liked controlling everything in his daytime world consumed Rodrigo and pushed him deeper into the kiss. Rodrigo took with ruthless abandon, sweeping Braden’s cheeks and teeth and roof of his mouth, forcing his tongue so deep he clinked their teeth. Braden held on through the whole thing, kissing Rodrigo back with nearly equal aggression, and clamped his thighs against Rodrigo’s hips, urging Rodrigo closer into the intimate hold.

  Rodrigo might have been happy kissing Braden for the rest of the night, but the man’s erection knifed into Rodrigo’s stomach with persistence, and it shocked Rodrigo to find his mouth filling with saliva in response. His balls ached and pulled in his sac too.

  Tearing his mouth off Braden’s, Rodrigo shoved the man’s head back into the pillow. He exposed the column of Braden’s throat and started licking his way downward, savoring the hint of salty sweat as he swirled his tongue around Braden’s Adam’s apple.

  “Ohh fuck…” Braden jerked as Rodrigo sucked. “That’s good.” He tunneled his fingers into Rodrigo’s hair. “You’re gonna kill me if you don’t stop.”

  One glance upward and Rodrigo found Braden’s mossy gaze. “I want another taste of your cock.”

  “Then I take it back.” Chuckling roughly, Braden untangled his fingers from Rodrigo’s hair and shoved against his shoulders. “Keep going.”

  Rodrigo nipped Braden’s chin and scraped his teeth down the man’s throat. Braden pushed at Rodrigo’s shoulders, but Rodrigo moved at his own pace, taking the time to explore the firm, warm skin beneath his mouth. Solid muscle sculpted Braden’s shoulders, arms, and chest, and Rodrigo ran his tongue or grazed his lips over every inch of it, taking extra time to nibble the tiny pebbled peaks of Braden’s copper-colored nipples. Braden moaned softly and arched his back with the simple torment, which sent more blood speeding to Rodrigo’s cock.

  Braden’s little noises spurred matching ones out of Rodrigo. Rock-solid six-pack abs awaited Rodrigo, and as he moved down Braden’s stomach, he outlined every visible line of muscle with his tongue, loving it every time Braden quivered under his touch. When Rodrigo reached the soft patch of skin at the base of Braden’s lower belly, he could feel the wave of pure heat emanating from Braden’s erection where it pushed upward, the tip only centimeters from Rodrigo’s mouth.

  God, I want that piece of meat so fucking bad.

  His lips right there, a breath away from contact, Rodrigo looked up the length of Braden’s torso into white fire burning in the man’s eyes.

  “Don’t toy with me,” Braden pleaded. Balanced on his elbows, his chest rose and fell visibly with each breath he took. “You’re gonna give me more damn gray hairs every second you wait.”

  Without breaking eye contact, Rodrigo dipped out his tongue and swiped it across Braden’s slit. The man’s lower body jolted, and Rodrigo swelled inside with masculine prowess. “I like your gray hairs, Crenshaw. They’re fucking sexy.” He took the thick root of Braden’s cock in hand and gave it a preview squeeze. “I like them almost as much as I like you.” Unable to find his voice anymore, Rodrigo opened wide and sucked Braden’s knob into his mouth.

  Burst after burst of new male flavors Rodrigo hadn’t yet grown accustomed to attacked his taste buds and sank into his bloodstream. A rough cry from Braden accompanied by a bucking of his hips pushed Rodrigo deeper down on Braden’s length, hungry for more. Rodrigo didn’t exactly know what to do in practical application yet, and he understood he wasn’t capable of accepting Braden’s entire cock into his mouth, but that didn’t stop him from moaning around Braden’s thick prick and learning on the job. After two or three fumbling attempts, Rodrigo managed to pump his fist up and down the lower half of Braden’s cock while he tongued and sucked like hell on the top portion, leaving plenty enough saliva behind to jerk the man off with a good, rough pull. Soon, Rodrigo found himself pushing for more, working more and more toward a mouth filled with every bit of Braden he could get. He tried to take more of Braden’s cock and even managed to cover another glorious inch, but that was as much as he could accept without gagging, and it wasn’t nearly enough at all.

  Braden moaned and swished his hips against the bedding with every drag Rodrigo sucked off the top of his length, but Rodrigo wanted the man screaming and shooting his load all over the crisp white sheets. Growling when he tried again and couldn’t take Braden all the way down his throat, Rodrigo spit him out and traced a line down a thickly ridged vein to Braden’s smooth red balls. Each high, tight orb moved and pulled, a
nd Rodrigo smiled with wicked intent as he pushed Braden’s legs up and apart, wanting a bit more room to play.

  One swirling lick around the entire area had Braden hissing for more. When Rodrigo sucked one testicle past his lips, the man shouted that it was too good and begged Rodrigo to stop. Having already seen how much Braden could withstand, Rodrigo ignored the hoarse plea and went to town in earnest, suckling and tugging on one nut and then moving to the other to give it similar treatment. As he did that, he locked his fingers around Braden’s cock and began stroking him from root to tip. Every time Rodrigo sucked on Braden’s nuts, his own balls pulled against his body in response and shoved him into needing more. Rodrigo drew one of Braden’s balls into his mouth again, but this time, rather than alternating, Rodrigo forced the second past his lips too. His mouth as full as he could get it, Rodrigo gently tongued and pulled Braden’s sac away from his body.

  Braden shuddered and bit off a string of expletives with the second sucking pull. “Let me breathe for a minute.” He used one hand to shove Rodrigo off his nuts and the other to yank Rodrigo’s hand up to his mouth. Braden shoved Rodrigo’s middle and ring fingers past his lips, drenched them in spit, and licked into the webbing too, wetting down everything he could get his tongue on. “Get me ready, Rigo.” Braden shoved Rodrigo’s saliva-lubricated fingers between his thighs. Reaching in from under his hips, Braden then spread his buttocks and put his asshole on display. “Stretch me for your cock.”

  Never in Rodrigo’s life had he thought such a sentence would arouse him to such a painful degree. That rosy little bud sat waiting and pulsing for him, and just looking made Rodrigo’s fingers twitch and his cock rear toward his stomach. He added a little more spit to the tip of his middle finger, put it against Braden’s pucker, and rubbed the striated muscle.