by Jaime Samms
Pete swallowed frantically as his own cock throbbed and pulsed. Vince tightened his grip. “Pete. You close?”
Pete squeezed his eyes shut. So fucking close. With his mouth full, he couldn’t respond.
“Pete. Babe. Look at me.” Vince’s voice was intimate, brushing breath and heat over his ear. Pete lifted up, blindly reaching. Vince clamped his mouth over Pete’s and thrust his tongue deep, no doubt savoring Lee’s taste right from Pete’s taste buds. The brutal invasion was enough. Pete groaned and came without a single touch.
He went a little limp, after that, easing out of the kiss. Vince gentled the kiss, then turned to Lee, who watched with a slightly shell-shocked expression on his face.
“Come here,” Vince ordered. He dragged Lee up and kissed him too, just as commanding, and with just as much tongue. Lee’s heavy groan melted away to a huff as Vince released him. He flopped back with a grunt.
Vince was quick to take control of the situation before it could get awkward. He stood and held out a hand to Pete. “Off him, now. Help him up.”
“Why?” Lee stared up at them, snaking an arm around Pete before he could do as Vince ordered. “What?”
“Come to bed,” Vince told him, not a suggestion, no room for discussion.
Lee stared, bit his lip, pulled in a sharp breath. The world suspended on that breath as he held it. Then he released it, slowly, and eased himself to a sitting position. “I think this is very weird,” he blurted.
Vince grinned.
Pete snorted out a laugh.
“You’ll get used to it,” Vince assured him, taking his hand and leading them both from the room toward the master bedroom and its California king–sized bed.
It was not a surprise to find himself awake and staring at a strange ceiling, since Lee hadn’t slept for most of the night. Toward morning he had dozed, but Vince easing himself out of the bed had wakened him. Thankfully, Vince hadn’t seemed to notice.
Lee blinked into the predawn gloom. Only a slight grayish tinge stole in around the curtains. It flirted with a sliver of golden light that crept from under the bathroom doorway. Together, they danced a lazy morning dance to the sound of Vince’s shower, and the mingled light slowly brightened the room.
Pete lay on the pillow next to Lee. One arm and one leg strapped Lee to the mattress with the careless way their weight had been slung over his body. Their feet were tangled in the twisted sheet, and Lee analyzed the sensation of having his parts mixed up with Pete’s. It was weird how a thing could be both comforting and scary at the same time.
The light cast from the bottom of the bathroom door made shadows on the ceiling of the four-poster’s frame. Lee followed the lines around and around with his gaze.
Get up. Just push him off and get up. Go to your own room before Vince gets back.
That would be the simple thing to do. Ease out of this before it went any further. He could stand being an experiment between the lovers if he didn’t have to stick around for the part where they discussed if it had been a success or not.
Besides, he wasn’t brave enough to face Vince, who would make him part of the discussion. He’d say something, and Lee would have to reflect, say something back. He’d have to make decisions about how he felt about—
“Mfgh.” Pete shifted, snuggled in closer, and Lee felt Pete’s morning wood against his thigh.
“Shit.”
“Shh.” Pete kissed his temple, then laid his head back on his pillow. He hadn’t opened his eyes. “Sleep.”
“I have to work.”
“It’s early. Ignore Vince. He’s insane. He’s going to put on sleep pants and go into the living room to work. Even I don’t get up this early most of the time.”
For a moment, Lee imagined a world where he sat across that table from Vince, early-morning sun slanting across the kitchen counters, the only sound the clicking of their mice and keyboards. Domestic. Simple. Why is that so terrifying?
“Go back to sleep,” Pete whispered. He shuffled closer, draping that leg so his cock was now resting heavily in the hollow of Lee’s hip.
It was just so . . . there. Lee felt like he should do something about it. His arm closest to Pete was going numb, but Pete was so warm and snuggled he didn’t want to move him to get more comfortable.
Was it a trick of the light or was the ceiling a shade lighter blue than the walls? Made it seem higher, didn’t it? Because home decorating was precisely the issue at the moment.
“You’re a loud thinker, aren’t you?” Pete was sounding more and more awake.
Lee wanted him to stay muzzy and soft. He liked this kitten-Pete. He was safe. Carefully, Lee eased around until he wiggled his numbing arm up under Pete’s pillow. From there, it was easy to wrap it around Pete’s shoulders and hold him in place.
“Mmm. Nice,” Pete mused. He nuzzled and let out a mewling huff when his cock ground against Lee.
Tugging Pete’s leg, Lee pulled it up his body so that Pete was lying half on top of him, their cocks separated by fabric and wishes. When Pete moved again, it was a definite roll of his hips. The arm across Lee’s chest dragged up until Pete’s fingers were buried in Lee’s hair.
Just the minutest shift of Pete’s body would bring their cocks together.
Lee moaned. “Pete.”
“Yeah.” Pete made the shift. His breath ghosted over the side of Lee’s face as he began to move, rubbing them against one another. The movement was maddening, not enough and yet, like a stolen dream Lee had no right to, too much. “Hold on,” Pete whispered.
“To what?” Did he mean stop?
“To me. Please.” Pete dragged his lips over Lee’s neck and jaw. “Please,” he husked.
Lee clamped a hand down on the small of Pet’s back and wrapped the arm around his shoulders tighter. It evoked a sigh from Pete, and he rocked a little harder, a little faster. His breath came quicker, and his tiny kisses got sloppier.
Lee needed more friction than he was getting, but clearly, something about this was working for Pete. Tentative, he moved his hand from Pete’s back lower, until he was cupping his ass. The muscles beneath his palm bunched and flexed as Pete rocked. Lee lifted his thigh to pry between Pete’s legs, and the ridge of Pete’s cock rubbed against the flexed, hard muscle of Lee’s thigh.
“Oh.” Pete groaned and buried his face in Lee’s neck.
Braver now, Lee slipped his hand down under the waistband of Pete’s boxers. His skin was warm and smooth, only a soft fuzz of hair covering the taught globe of his ass.
“Nice,” Lee muttered. “I like that.” He ran his hand over Pete and dipped his fingers into the cleft between the cheeks.
Pete whimpered, and his rhythmic rocking faltered as he pushed back into Lee’s touch, the jittery motion leaving him hovering between Lee’s thigh and his fingers.
Lee sank his fingers deeper, searching, then finding the delicate pucker of Pete’s hole. He didn’t invade—that was a step too far—but Pete shuddered in his arms and whimpered again.
“Keep going,” Lee encouraged when Pete still hesitated. “I want to see you come.”
Pete didn’t need more encouragement. He pushed himself against Lee, rutted fast and frantic, and in a few seconds, stiffened as hot seed spurted all over Lee.
“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,” Pete muttered, face still hidden in Lee’s neck.
“Look at me.” As Pete’s body sagged, Lee put a hand on either side of Pete’s face and lifted so he could see him. “You all right?”
Pete squeaked and smiled, a soft, dazed curve of lips and hazy glow of eyes. “Morning.”
“It is that,” Lee agreed.
“Your turn?” Pete asked, and before Lee could bother to tell him he didn’t have to, Pete had slunk his hand down into Lee’s shorts and wrapped surprisingly strong fingers around his cock. He was clearly practiced at fast-and-dirty handjobs. Lee didn’t have time to think. Pete’s mouth was over his and his hand worked expertly to bring him off. Before he knew what had
happened, Lee was hearing white noise and shooting come over Pete’s fingers.
Afterward, he lay in a daze as Pete languidly licked at his own fingers and watched him like he was some interesting specimen.
“What?” Lee tried to focus on the clear glass baubles at the ends of the curtain rods and how they left little splashes of bright on the walls behind them.
Pete grinned. “This suits you.”
What does? I probably have bedhead and pillow wrinkles and drool on my face. He rubbed at his cheek. Morning was not a good look on him.
“Stop.” Pete brushed his hand away and leaned over him to kiss him. For a few minutes, Lee lost himself in the act and didn’t worry that he was probably hideous.
“Sleep well?” Vince’s voice from the bathroom doorway made them both jump, then Pete laughed and rolled so he was lying on his side, plastered tight against Lee, a shield between him and Vince.
“Woke up well too,” Pete gloated. “Nice shower?”
Vince glanced from one to the other of them and sighed. “Guess that’s what I get for being the early bird around here.”
Pete pouted, and Lee’s heart skipped at the prettiness of his plump lips. “No worm for you, baby. So sad.”
“You’re a brat.”
Pete grinned. “Flip you for the shower,” he said to Lee. “It’s sadly only big enough for one.”
“You go.” Lee gently prodded him toward the edge of the bed. “I can wait. You have to leave before us this morning, you said.”
Pete pouted for real this time, and it was no less pretty. “True.” He tossed off the sheet and peeled off his shorts as he got to his feet, but there was no missing the slick mess across his pubes and belly.
One of Vince’s eyebrows went up, and as Pete passed him, he slid a finger through the mess and held it up to Lee. “Yours?”
“Uh . . .” Lee’s heart juddered. Was this bad? Had he overstepped? Were there rules here he didn’t know?
“Both,” Pete piped up, sounding glib and satisfied with himself. He didn’t look back as he sauntered, straight-backed and sex-kitteny, to the bathroom.
When Lee managed to drag his gaze from that pert ass back to Vince’s face, it was to find that Vince, too, was mesmerized by Pete’s overt strut. “He really likes morning sex,” Vince muttered.
Lee frowned. “Then why do you leave him asleep in bed by himself?” That made no sense. Pete was adorable and sexy and clearly loved getting dirty in bed.
Vince let out a soft sigh, came over to his side of the bed and flopped down on his back. He was dressed in only a towel that slipped open most of the way up his thigh. His privates were covered, but the golden fuzz over the mellow skin of his leg was more than a little mouthwatering. It was all Lee could do not to reach out and touch just because it was there.
Then Vince rolled over to face Lee, and there was nothing sexy about the half-panicked look in his eyes.
“I—” Vince stared at Lee. Easy to remember why he’d wanted to do this. Lee was beautiful, even with a faint tracery of lines on his cheek where the pillow had embedded the outline of a few wrinkles. He had a strong jaw, and his eyes, at the moment, were hooded and dark. The foreboding expression warred with his tensely held posture, and the determined space he left between them.
There was a lot riding on the three of them working, now they had really begun. Not the least of which was that their working relationship had to remain steady. If he screwed that up, he was out of a job because he would not, in a million years, want or expect Lee to move on if this fucked them up.
“You what?” Lee watched him closely, eyes darting over his face, as unsettled as Vince felt.
“It’s just . . . Pete, he does a lot of yoga and meditating and scented candles and balanced diets and herbal teas—”
“I get it. He’s very Zen.”
“Actually, he’s not,” Vince blurted, and there. It was out and no going back. He hefted a sigh and some of the tension flowed out with the heavy breath. Pete would be so proud. Clean air in, stress out. Vince found himself smiling.
“He’s not. Even a little bit. He does all that so he doesn’t end up running around like some frazzle-feathered headless chicken. He needs all that to stay grounded and sane, and even then, sometimes, it’s not enough. When his schedule gets hectic, it’s like he’s an energized version of himself and I can’t . . .”
Lee stared at him, waiting, clearly thinking there must be more, but there really wasn’t. Vince sighed.
“You can’t . . . what?”
“Keep up? Hold on to him? I can’t be all the things he needs, and some of his needs have to be dealt with before we even get to the good stuff. He needs to be sane to do his job. He needs to sleep and be rested when he wakes up. I spend an awful lot of my energy helping him turn it all off at night. And frankly, by the time he’s ready for sex, I just . . .”
“Can’t,” Lee said softly after a few heartbeats.
And there it was: Vince felt exactly like the young, stupid office lackey who had obeyed Oscar Caruthers because he hadn’t known what else to do. He hadn’t trusted his gut then, and it had almost cost him his career. He was lucky Blaire Caruthers had been more reasonable than his tyrant father. Vince was lucky that in the office, Lee was always so together. So calm. Always knew the best next move. He was lucky Lee had managed to lead him away from that ledge and help him find his footing.
“I— You—” Vince grimaced. “God. Listen to me.”
“I am listening.” Lee ran his thumb over Vince’s cheek bone, and the caress was everything. Vince closed his eyes to better feel the slide of skin over skin. “So talk.”
It was easy for Vince to guide Lee to where he needed him when Vince could easily see what Pete needed from both of them. In those moments, he could even see what Lee needed. But here, now, in the wan light of a West Coast morning struggling not to be another gray and dismal day in a too-long string of them lately, it was impossible to figure out what he needed, let alone voice it. So instead, he closed his eyes and clamped his lips shut.
Lee’s palm against the side of his face was warm. His breath as it floated in random spurts smelled like a new day and the tail ends of dreams. It should have been unappealing, but Lee’s lips, when they contacted Vince’s, were as soft as Vince always knew they would be. His mouth was a different, less pillowy than Pete’s. His tongue was sharper, just like the words he so often spouted. His weight, when he rolled Vince over onto his back, was manageable, even though he was taller and more muscled.
When he prodded at Vince’s mouth with his tongue, Vince opened. Lee explored and cajoled touch and sound out of Vince in easy, nondemanding ways. Like he was there solely to make Vince feel good. To relax him and fill him with everything he needed after so long pouring his love and support into Pete.
It wasn’t that he and Pete had a one-way siphon happening. Pete could and did build Vince up. But there were things Vince wanted Pete didn’t have, just as there were things Pete wanted Vince couldn’t give.
After a lifetime of kisses, Lee pushed up enough to look down at Vince. “Earlier, Pete told me I was thinking very loudly. I thought he was being dramatic, but now I get it.”
Vince furrowed his brow. “What?”
“You’re thinking so loud. Stop thinking at all. For five minutes. Just be.” He rubbed his thumb lightly between Vince’s eyebrows. “Stop that.”
Vince tried to relax and again find that floaty place Lee had kissed him to. He got closer when Lee bent to run small kisses over his face, then licked up tastes along his throat and over his chest. And then Vince was like a kite on the end of Lee’s tether as Lee played with his nipples, alternately kissing and licking, letting him soar up on the gentle sensations, then yanking him down again when he bit.
Lee moved the game lower and lower on Vince’s body, the clamp of his teeth, the tug of the tiny hairs over his body keeping Vince safely connected. He barely noticed when Lee stripped the towel off his waist, but obl
iged when Lee nudged his legs apart.
For a long time, Lee played with him, stroking his cock, tugging at his balls, prodding at his entrance, and licking and kissing everything he could get tongue and lips on. At some point, the bed dipped and jostled, and Pete’s clean, shower-washed scent surrounded Vince. He opened his eyes when Pete slipped under Vince to support his head in his lap. Lee continued to tease him right up to the edge.
“Let him go now,” Pete suggested. It wasn’t a command in the way Vince was accustomed to directing things. Just an idea guiding Lee to give Vince the release he so desperately needed.
It was odd, lying between them, at their mercy. Unencumbered, like that kite again, only now safely in the hands of two people who wouldn’t let him drift too far.
Lee’s hot breath engulfed him as he sank his mouth over Vince. His heat was incredible. Pete’s hands stroking through his hair, the soft hum of Pete’s voice as he watched Lee, it all coalesced into the safest place Vince could remember being.
Lee sucked him deep, swallowed around him, and it was all. Heat, a red-hot need, bubbled up inside him. His balls drew up tight, and he boiled over, crying out and flailing. Pete grabbed his hand, clamped it down hard so the back of it sank into the mattress, and then Lee was accepting his release and stroking his thigh, and Pete was murmuring to him and petting him.
Eventually, his heart slowed. He remembered how to breathe. He could hear again, and feel. He knew his head was still in Pete’s lap. He could sense the heat of Lee’s body stretched out along his. The cocoon of lazy contentment urged him to stay. He shouldn’t go back to sleep because he had emails to prepare and research to do. He had reports to give to Blaire by the end of the week.
Also, Pete would be going back to work today. He’d need care when he got home. He’d have to come down from the vibrating high of his job, to ease back into his skin properly. Vince had one hell of a day ahead of him.
When he opened his eyes to start it, Pete was gone. Lee was in the shower. Sunlight streamed across the bed in a glorious show of triumph over Bluewater Bay’s sometimes dismal spring. Vince rolled to gaze out the window. In the distance, he caught a glimpse of the edge of the world, where everything fell away off the bluff and into the sound.