Chapter 20
Warren folded his arms over his chest as he watched the weather report on the large screen TV at the firehouse. The All News Network was doing an in-depth report on the band of thunderstorms that had been wreaking havoc through parts of the Midwest.
August was burning hot as hell, and September, arriving in a week or so didn’t promise to be any cooler. Record heat meant the possibility of severe thunderstorms. Those monstrous cells could bring with them not only straight-line winds and microbursts, but tornadoes as well.
Some people—especially those who didn’t live in the South—thought tornado season ended in June. The truth was tornadoes could happen at any time, if the conditions were right.
Conditions were beginning to look a little too right for comfort.
“I don’t like the look of that.” Grant came to stand beside him, his arms also folded over his chest.
His cousin was primarily a firefighter and was even now studying arson investigation. But he was also a trained EMT and, like Warren and Ed, had pitched in around their part of Texas when the weather had gone for a sudden and violent shit.
“So far it doesn’t look too bad,” Warren said. “The fronts have been veering off toward the Eastern Seaboard. But the forecast for the area between here and Austin calls for the heat to rise over the next couple of days. I have a feeling that we’re due to be walloped.”
“I’ve already confirmed us as ready for all of the municipalities between here and Travis County,” Grant said. “So we’ll all be considered on call until this weather pattern changes.”
Warren nodded. The mutual aid pacts the town of Lusty had with the surrounding municipalities and townships guaranteed they would help if called upon. Whichever community had need of them, the Emergency Services staff there would be in charge. Sometimes they would be assigned to help dig through debris looking for survivors. And sometimes, they would be asked to conduct a house-by-house check of specific neighborhoods or areas.
In the time they’d been paramedics, he and Ed had worked during emergencies in both capacities.
Nothing had affected him the way walking through a neighborhood devastated by tornados had. He recalled seeing block after block of family homes reduced to so much kindling. He’d figured at the time that it must be what a war zone looked like. And he’d wondered, as he’d looked around, where the hell did one start? How did anyone recover from that? It shook the control freak in him, that part of him that wanted to be responsible and take care of everyone. That part of him that believed if he was just vigilant enough, everyone would be safe.
Warren thought about some of the areas of the country that had been hit badly this year already—areas where being devastated by tornadoes had happened to them before and likely would again.
He couldn’t fathom the resilience, or the spiritual strength that some folks in the United States displayed, just as a matter of course.
Always the most poignant sight for him—next to the loss of life and the injuries—was seeing a family’s photographs or children’s toys scattered like flotsam and jetsam on the sea of rubble. A child’s cherished teddy bear caught on a nail, torn, its stuffing scattered in the wind, spoke of a kind of heartache and loss that some people never fully grasped.
That image had been burned into his memory and had come to represent loss beyond calculation.
He focused again on the TV screen. “I have a feeling one of those systems is going to be trouble for us.”
“Yeah, I have to agree. Some of that crap is headed this way, too. It’s certainly been one hell of a year for the Midwest,” Grant said. “Oklahoma has certainly had more than its share of grief from Mother Nature.”
“Amen to that.”
Ed joined them. “I guess we’ll have to tell Carol we’ll visit her parents next weekend, instead of this one.”
They hadn’t made a firm date to travel north to Abilene yet, but that morning they’d come back to work after taking the day off to care for their woman, and had planned to grab a couple of vacation days at the end of the week.
“She’ll understand,” Warren said.
“Yes, she will,” Ed agreed.
Of course, there was no question that he and his brother would stay home, in case they were called in to assist. Being paramedics was more than a job to them both. They considered it their calling, the one thing they’d been born to do. They took their work very seriously, and knew that when they responded to a call they could—and often did—make a difference.
Carol understood and respected that about them—and that was just one of the many things they loved about her.
“You’re planning to take Carol to visit her folks?” Grant asked. “Her idea, or yours?”
“Her choice,” Warren corrected. “We’re going as moral support and, of course, to meet her family.”
“Good. It can’t have been easy for her, all these months, living away from them. Nor easy for them, with the rift between them.”
Warren shrugged. It didn’t surprise him that Grant would know so much about Carol’s family situation. There was practically no such thing as privacy in Lusty.
“She’s feeling better this morning, isn’t she?” Grant asked.
“Yeah, better but not as good as she’d hoped,” Ed said. “When we left this morning she was grumbling a little because she’s still tired. She called Chloe, who told her to stay home one more day.” He grinned. “Our woman doesn’t do ‘idle’ very well.”
“The best ones don’t,” Grant said. “Well, you can’t have the next day or so off as you’d hoped for, but you can take the afternoon off. I want the new hires to get their feet a bit wetter, working on their own.” He frowned as he looked toward the kitchen, where both Brad and Mandi were busy going through their procedure manuals.
Once it had been explained to Amanda that both Warren and Ed were in a relationship, she’d settled down, and focused a bit more on the job. Both of the new recruits had recently moved into apartments in town. Warren happened to know they’d moved into separate buildings.
He didn’t know if that had been intentional, or not. Since there was only one large apartment building and three four-plexes in town, one had to figure it might have been.
“I was going to ask you how you thought they were getting along,” Grant said. “I know we’ve discussed their competency.”
Warren looked at Ed. Ed sent him a look that told him he was happy to leave answering that question up to his big brother. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. They’re both competent and knowledgeable. I’m just not sure they’ve jelled yet as a team, yet. But it is early days for that.”
“That’s a tough one for us to judge, isn’t it?” Grant nodded to him. “Andrew and I are a team, and so are the two of you—but jelling was never an issue for either of us.”
“True.” Sometimes being of Lusty, and part of a large, sprawling family, meant there were aspects to what could be considered normal, twenty-first-century life that were completely foreign to them.
Grant headed back to his office and he and Edward ambled off toward theirs. He turned his thoughts away from his newest coworkers and toward the day’s prospects, which had brightened considerably.
They were going to be heading home sooner than usual. He could recall a time in the not-too-distant past when the prospect of being sent home early would have felt like a punishment.
But that was before Carol of the gleaming blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and smokin’ hot body.
“Man, the next two hours are really going to drag—and I never thought I would ever say that at work.”
Warren met his brother’s gaze. “I hear you. But just think of the possibilities for this afternoon.” They shared a grin and walked a little quicker toward their desks, clearly of the same mind.
If they were going to think about what their afternoon was going to be like, they best get sitting down so evidence of their thoughts didn’t stand out for everyone to see.
* * * *
I am such a lazy slug!
Carol made herself a cup of coffee in the Keurig the men had on the kitchen counter and stood sipping it as she looked out the window into the back yard.
The yard was large, but sparse. If it was her yard she’d add a bunch of crape myrtles, in different varieties of sizes and colors, some live oaks, maybe a pecan tree or two. Some antique roses would look nice, too. They were her favorite. Maybe she’d put some annuals in, spring and fall, for a little temporary color.
She smiled when she realized the idea of getting back out into a garden didn’t frighten her. She’d have her medication nearby, and she would leave if she saw bees, but she’d only been stung once before that she could recall and that had been years before.
She still felt a little bit tired, even though it was coming up on noon hour and she’d finally roused her lazy self out of bed after sleeping all morning. She wanted a shower, and then…Carol sighed. Then she wanted to make love to Warren and Edward. Unfortunately, she had a few hours to wait before that could happen.
She’d wanted them when she’d awakened in the wee hours of the morning the day before, before she’d burst into tears.
She’d been frightened after being stung, when she’d had trouble breathing. It had never occurred to her that she could ever develop an allergy—and to a bee sting, of all things. And then the look of alarm on the men’s faces, and the sound of fear in Edward’s voice just before he’d run to get the medication—those two things had let her know, in no uncertain terms, the situation was serious.
But while she’d been afraid, really afraid—at the same time she’d trusted her men to take care of her.
They are my men, and I love them so much.
From the moment that bee had stung her, they’d taken care of her and made sure she was all right, and they’d never left her side, not for one moment. She’d dozed off on the way here from the clinic, and they’d carried her into the house, undressed her, slipped a T-shirt on her—one of Warren’s—and then they’d tucked her into the bed between them, holding her through the night.
Then she’d awakened, and cried, and they had surrounded her with more tenderness and love than she’d ever believed could be hers.
But the biggest thing of all—the one thing they’d done that told her more than words what she meant to them was that they’d stayed home from work yesterday to take care of her. They’d chosen her over their calling.
That was why she hadn’t argued when they’d told her this morning to call Chloe and take one more day off.
Carol sighed. There was just nothing about Warren and Edward Jessop and the way they took care of her that she didn’t love.
A sound drew her attention to the front of the house. She set her cup down and went to investigate. As she neared the front door, it opened.
“I was just wishing for the two of you and here you are.” It had never occurred to Carol that they would come home at noon to check on her. She guessed it should have, given they’d taken the day off yesterday. “Do you want me to make you some lunch?”
“No, we thought we’d have you for lunch.” Warren kept moving until he was close enough to wrap her in his arms.
“Is this what they call a ‘nooner’?”
Both men chuckled. Warren kissed her, and Carol stopped thinking. She slid her arms around his neck and opened to him. The glide of his tongue against hers, and the succulent way he moved his hot, sexy mouth on hers simply turned her on.
Arousal filled her, leaving no room for anything but these men and what they could do to her and how they made her feel.
Warren eased his lips from hers and turned her over to his brother. Edward’s arms felt just as strong around her, and his mouth fed her heat just as potently as did Warren’s. She drank in his taste, loving the way his mouth moved on hers, making little purring sounds as he brought her hips flush to his.
The strength of his erection pressed against her and she nestled into him, loving the way feeling just the outline of his cock against her could make her pussy damp.
He broke their kiss and rested his forehead against hers. His hands caressed up and down her back, and he seemed to be breathing awfully hard. His hands trembled, and he sighed.
I did that. The idea made her giddy with accomplishment.
“We have two questions for you, beautiful.”
“First, how are you feeling?” Warren asked. He braced her back and the heat and the scent from both of them soothed and aroused at the same time.
“Better, thank you. Not a hundred percent, but I was feeling a little restless and I figure that has to be a sign that I’m nearly recovered.” She eased back so that she could see both men at the same time.
Just the look in their eyes told her that her prospects for the day were definitely looking up. “What’s the second question?”
“Wanna get naked and fool around?” Ed asked.
Carol giggled at the mock leers and the boyish smiles. Did she? “Hell, yes. As a matter of fact I was just thinking how badly I wanted to shower and then make love with the two of you.”
“Well, then, let’s go shower.”
Moments later, Carol closed her eyes and turned her face up to the gently falling water. Ed had programmed the sound system and as she’d stepped into the shower the song of birds and the light swoosh of wind through tree limbs echoed in the ceramic-lined room. How easy to imagine she was in a forest glen, with the rain streaming down upon her, with her lovers ready to claim her in their own private bower.
Behind her, Warren pressed close. He slid his hands around her body, cupped her breasts and tugged at her nipples. His lips sipped at her neck and then his tongue traced the shell of her ear.
His erection nestled against the small of her back and the crack of her ass, and Carol shivered with need.
In front of her, Edward lathered his hands and then caressed her belly, worked down to her mound, and finally slipped his fingers between her legs, spreading the foam along her slit, caressing the lips, gently cleaning her pussy.
He used his thumb to strum her clit, and Carol moaned and groaned and thrust her hips toward him.
“Our woman seems hungry, brother,” Edward said.
She opened her eyes and his brown-eyed gaze pinned her in place, his heated look promising a wealth of decadent delights.
“I am hungry.” Carol knew she’d come a long way in the short time she’d opened herself to these men. She’d been listening and learning, too, as other women had discussed sex at the spa.
She decided to put some of her new knowledge to work.
“I’m hungry for your cocks. I want to feel you both inside my body at the same time. I want you to fuck my cunt and fuck my ass.”
No doubt about it, talking dirty seemed to turn these men on. She could both see and feel their cocks responding to her teasing.
“Do you think you’re ready for that?” Warren’s voice had turned husky and the brush of his breath, as he whispered in her ear, made her nipples peak even harder. “Having two cocks inside you—double penetration—that’s asking a lot of a woman. It’s what we want with you, eventually—but are you really ready for it now?”
How would she know for certain if she was ready, or not? Was there some kind of physical sign? Did her body change in some way they could measure to know the time was right?
How the hell would I even know that? She let her desire and her frustration show. “I need you. I need you both inside me, I need to feel us connected…I can’t explain it, I just have to have it!”
“Shh…” Edward leaned forward and kissed her cheeks, a gentle buss on each one. They were in the shower, water coating them everywhere. How had he realized I was crying?
“You can have us, beautiful. You can have us any way you want us.”
“Let us finish taking care of you first, sweetheart.” Warren squeezed her breasts and pulled her flush against him. “Let us love you the way we need to love you
.”
Their brand of loving involved long, languid kisses and lovely, lavish caresses that awakened every nerve ending, every atom until Carol could have sworn she vibrated with arousal. She gave herself over to the luxury of pampering these men seemed to be so very good at. She didn’t even worry about keeping herself upright. When her knees gave way, Warren’s arms were there, and he held her firmly. Every inch of her body they washed and rinsed. They even worked conditioner into her hair.
“Do you know that just smelling your shampoo and conditioner makes me hard?” Edward grinned at her.
“Does it?” She grinned right back at him, tickled by the idea that sniffing her personal products would have that effect on him. “Guess you won’t be using my shampoo when I’m not with you, then, will you?”
“Are you kidding? I’d take it into my own shower and get off, thinking of you.”
“Now that would be a waste.” Just to make sure he got her meaning she slowly—very slowly—ran her tongue around the outside of her lips.
His nostrils flared and it seemed to her the light in his eyes sharpened. “You want all of my cum, do you?”
“Every drop of it.”
“Baby, baby, you are so getting laid today.” Warren nuzzled her neck. He held out his hand toward Edward.
She didn’t have to wonder why for long. Edward reached up to the high shelf and brought down a tube which he opened. He squirted a bit of waterproof lube on Warren’s fingers.
Warren changed his grip on her, slipping one arm around her, under her breasts, holding her fast. He parted her ass cheeks with one finger of his other hand, ran it over her anus a couple of times, and then followed that seductive touch with the other fingers that held the gelatinous substance.
“Oh, yes!” She’d never known she could get so turned on having her ass played with. Maybe it’s not me, maybe it’s them. Whatever they do to me just feels so right.
“God, woman, you’re actually purring.” Edward cupped her face. “Let’s get you rinsed and dried off and into bed.”
“Mmm, maybe we can make her purr louder—or scream.”
Love Under Two Responders [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 20