Three, Two, One (321)

by JA Huss

  And then Ark dives in. He buries his face in my folds. His tongue licks me from seam to seam. His fingers push inside, stretching me—slipping around inside as he searches for my pleasure spot.

  He finds it and I arch my back, pulling away from JD’s hold. I get a sharp bite on the shoulder for that. “Be still, Blue,” JD growls in my ear. “You’re gonna come hard tonight. And you’re gonna do it more than once.”

  His dirty talk, combined with Ark’s talented tongue and fingers, has me writhing even more. “Fuck me,” I whisper. “Just fuck me now and we can play afterward.”

  JD reaches under my ass and lifts me up so he can slide all the way underneath me. His hard cock presses between my ass cheeks, seeking me out. Ark backs off a little, his eyes never leaving the action happening down below, as JD positions his dick at my puckered asshole.

  “Get her wet for me,” JD asks him quietly.

  Ark responds by pumping his fingers in my pussy a few times and then dragging my slick juices down to my ass. He inserts his finger, parting the muscles and making me cry out.

  But I love it. The pain is gone too soon, and the channel is wet and ready when JD positions his cock and thrusts himself inside me.

  “Oh, yes,” I moan. It’s pain, but it feels so good. He stretches my ass and then he’s in far enough to get past the constricting muscles and make them relax.

  Ark scoots in closer, pumping his cock.

  “Camera,” I say. “Get the camera.”

  “Fuck the camera,” Ark says. And then he slaps my clit with his dick, making me squeal. A moment later and he’s inside me too. They fill me up. JD pumps slowly from below. Ark thrusts in from above. His chest comes down on top of mine, and then he leans into my ear and whispers so low I can barely hear him over the panting of lust, “I want you.”

  I don’t have time to tell him back, or say he’s got me, or anything because JD’s fingers reach around and find my clit. And that’s all it takes. I clench down, making both men grunt and moan from the pressure, and the three of us come together.

  One long, simultaneous outpouring of release that hits me so hard, my head spins.

  After a few moments of heavy panting JD grabs my tit and squeezes, just as Ark collapses on top of us.

  “Get off! You dick!” JD says next to my ear.

  Ark rolls over and collapses against the pillow as JD shifts me to the side and hooks his leg over mine, pulling me into his arms. “Don’t move, darling,” he says, still out of breath. “Just stay right there.”

  I look over at Ark and I know he’s annoyed with JD’s claiming leg move. He rolls his eyes and starts to turn his back to us. But I reach out and grab his hand and bring it to my lips. “Come closer,” I say, kissing his fingers. I slide my lips around them and suck for a moment.

  His eyes light up with his smile. “You’re a dirty girl, Blue.”

  I remove his fingers from my mouth. “They taste like me.”

  He withdraws his hand, but scoots over just enough to let me cuddle up to his bicep.

  And that’s an offer I can’t refuse. It’s a monumental step forward on his part. Letting the three of us sleep together—in his bed—well, it’s more than JD and I ever hoped for when we set this all up before Ark got home.

  I wake up smelling like sex.

  Blue’s warm body against mine feels so right, I wrap my arms around her and pull her close. “Where’s JD?”

  “Shower,” she mumbles into my chest.

  I open my eyes and check the clock. Eight AM. “Where the fuck is he going?”

  “To get breakfast, he said.”

  Fucking JD. “Move over, Blue. I gotta go see what he’s doing.”

  I swing my legs over the side of the bed and put my face in my hands and try to come to terms with how my life might be changing before my eyes. I’m still naked and I had a threesome with my best friend and a girl I want so bad, it’s making me crazy.

  In all four years I’ve been here in Denver, never before have I put my goals at risk. Until now. I’ve always had one eye on the prize. I might’ve taken my time about it but I never walked away from my original goal.

  Is this walking away? Will I risk everything just to have this relationship on terms we can all agree to?

  Is she worth it?

  I look over my shoulder and find her sleeping again. Her mouth is open slightly and her chest is rising and falling in a slow, even rhythm.

  She’s worth it.

  I don’t know why, I just know this girl is the one. And if I have to play house with JD for a little while to keep her, I will.

  I stand up and walk over to my clothes on the floor, drag my jeans on, and go looking for JD. I didn’t see him getting up at sunrise, that’s for sure.

  I knock on his door and it opens a crack. “Come in,” he calls.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” I ask, annoyed.

  “Get some chow. You got a request?” He pulls a t-shirt over his head and then pulls a clean flannel off the hanger in his closet.

  “We can all go together.”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Blue said she’s not leaving the apartment.”

  “What? Like today?”

  “No, like ever. She says she has some phobia about going outside.”

  “What? This has gone on long enough. That’s bullshit—”

  “Hey,” he says, putting his hands up. “I’m just telling you what she told me. So I’m gonna go out and grab some food and I’ll be back in half an hour.”

  “Let’s make food.”

  He stops, his foot halfway inside his boot, and shoots me a wink. “You mean like a family?”

  “Fuck off.”

  JD resumes putting his boots on and then works on buckling his belt before looking back to me. “I’m fine, OK?”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Well”—he tucks his wallet into his back pocket—“who cares? I don’t need your permission to go out and get breakfast. I don’t need your permission to go out and do shit you think I’m doing when I’m not.” He stops again, looking me in the eyes. “I’m not doing that. So if that’s what you think, fuck you.”

  And then he walks out of the bedroom and I listen to his boots clunk along on the floor until he opens the front door and slams it closed behind him.

  I walk back to my room and get back in bed with Blue.

  “What was that about?”

  “Nothing,” I say, pulling her close to me again. I like the way she smells right now. It’s a mixture of the three of us. “I need to take you to the clinic today. Get some pills.”

  “No,” she says, very firmly.

  “What do you mean no? I came inside you. You’re not on any birth control. We need to be more careful, so that involves a trip to the clinic.”

  “I’m not leaving.”

  Hmmm. So it is true. She’s confining herself inside. “Why not?”

  She turns in bed so she’s facing me. “I panic when I have to go outside. That’s why when you found me, I was all shaky and out of breath. I was trying to hide under that awning, to make the space close in on me. I need closed spaces.”

  Well, that’s interesting. “How am I supposed to take you out to dinner?”

  She laughs. “What?”

  “Dinner. I have those clothes for you, remember? We were gonna go to dinner the other night and we got sidetracked. So if you don’t leave the house, I can’t take you out.”

  She studies my face intently. Like she’s trying to decide if I’m serious.

  I am. So she’s convinced. “I can cook.”

  OK, that’s all I needed. She’s not unreasonable. She’s scared of something. I highly doubt she has agoraphobia, but I do believe she has a good reason for wanting to stay in.

  She doesn’t have a fear of leaving the house. She has a fear of getting caught. It’s just, I can’t figure out what she’s afraid of getting caught for. Was she raped? It seems possible with all the marks on her. They are beginnin
g to fade now, which tells me they probably happened that morning we found her.

  But she’s alluded to being a willing participant in some sexually deviant thing on several occasions. So who is looking for her?

  “I can see your mind spinning, you know.”

  “Is that right?” I ask. “What am I thinking?”

  “You want answers. And I’m not going to offer them up. Not yet. If I leave this loft, I’m not coming back.”

  “What?” I sit up for this part. “Explain.”

  She shrugs and turns over, showing me her marred back in the bright morning sun. I lift up her hair and study the brand. “It’s a circle, so that means forever.”

  “Yes,” she says in a low voice.

  “But there’s no legally binding contract on forever, Blue.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “So what are you afraid of? That someone will see you and take you back?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Kill you?”

  Silence.

  I take a deep breath and lie back down, my arm pushing under her hip so I can circle her waist. “We can stay in. It’s no big deal. We’ll have dinners together.”

  She turns her head a little, looking over her shoulder at me. “We can? All three of us?”

  I shrug. “I don’t control JD, but yeah. I’ll eat your food.”

  She turns all the way over this time and stares at me. “What’s this about? You’re Mr. Agreeable now?”

  “I’m never Mr. Disagreeable.”

  “Whatever,” she laughs. “You’re nosy and bossy. You want to call all the shots and you hate it when you can’t. I barely know you, and these things are so true, I figured them out on day one.”

  “Day one? You were out of it on day one.”

  “And still I had you pegged.”

  I stare at her for a few seconds. She needs to eat more, that’s for sure. She’s not sick-looking, like the first day she got here. But she’s still too thin and she looks weak. Her complexion is far too pale and her hair isn’t shiny and bright. But her eyes are getting there. And this gives me hope. Enough hope to allow her some leeway in finding her way forward. “I just want what’s good for you, that’s all. Staying in or going out isn’t a fight I’m interested in fighting just yet.”

  She reaches up and touches my face. “Why are you interested at all?”

  I take her finger and pull it to my lips to give it a kiss. “I think you need help. And I want to be the one to give it to you.”

  “You’re a good Samaritan?”

  “Something like that.”

  She chuckles at the way I mimic her answer a few seconds ago. “OK, then. I’ll make you guys food and you will eat with me and not pressure me to leave here.”

  “Deal,” I tell her. “Now let’s go back to sleep. With any luck, JD will get lost on his way to the breakfast place and leave us alone for a little while.”

  She turns back around, her back pressed against my chest. “I know you worry about it. But I don’t understand why. He seems fine to me.”

  “Well, Blue, if you ever get a desire to leave the loft, maybe one day you can follow him. Then you’ll know what he’s up to. Then you’ll know why I worry.”

  “Is it bad?” Her voice betrays her worry.

  “It can be. But it’s not bad now. So just let me take care of it. And the birth control. I’ll set up a time for the doctor to come here and see you.”

  “What doctor? You have a doctor in mind?”

  “The one we send the girls to.”

  “Your whore doctor?” She pushes off me, but I wrap my arms tighter and lean into her ear.

  “Stop. I’ll find a good one, then. I wasn’t trying to insult you. It’s just something we need to take care of and it’s non-negotiable.” She huffs out a breath and relaxes. “But it would be a lot easier if you just agreed to leave the loft.”

  “I don’t have my ID. I don’t have a health card. And I don’t want to give my real name.”

  I don’t know why, but hearing her admit that Blue is not her name stops me cold. I mean, I gave her the name. I know it’s not real. But somehow it slipped my mind. “What is your real name?”

  “Blue,” she says, huffing out some air so that it blows her hair up above her eyes. “I like being Blue, so that’s my real name. What’s your real name?”

  “Ark,” I tell her back. “I’m just Ark.”

  “Ark is a weird name. What’s JD’s name?”

  “He never said,” I lie, thinking about the day I met him outside the bus station. “So it’s never been anything but JD since I’ve met him.”

  “I don’t need birth control, Ark.”

  I close my eyes, immediately understanding, but not wanting it to be true.

  “I don’t need birth control because I can’t get pregnant. So don’t worry about it.”

  With most girls, I’d call that bluff. But I know it’s not a bluff.

  We lie there in silence for a little while. Thinking about babies that will never be conceived. And fake names. About finding people when you’re not looking. About escaping the past and pretending there’s no such thing as a future. We live in the present for a few moments and then the contemplative mood breaks when the front door opens and closes.

  “I’m back, asshole. And I got breakfast,” JD yells from the living room. Neither Blue nor I move as he walks into the bedroom. But JD can read us immediately. “What’s the matter?”

  I unwrap myself from Blue and sit up. “Nothing.”

  “What’s your real name?” Blue asks him.

  “Huh?” JD smiles at her in that way he does. God, sometimes I wish could be him. Sometimes I wish I could let all this baggage go, and be JD. Cool. Fun. Charming. Beautiful.

  Because JD has everything going for him. I’ve watched him sweet-talk girls enough to know. He’s exactly what they want. Add in the fact that he’s worth almost fourteen million dollars, and that seals the deal.

  “James David,” he says, bouncing on the bed, making Blue and I bounce with him. He settles next to her and leans down for a kiss. She obliges him without even missing a beat. Their eyes meet before she closes hers, their lips touching as he sweeps his tongue inside. I should feel jealous, but oddly, I don’t. It makes me feel… content. “But I hate that name. My parents never called me that. It was always JD.”

  And then he looks at me to see if I have anything to add. But fuck that shit. I’m not touching it. “What’d you get for breakfast?” I ask him instead.

  “Bagels. Lots and lots of bagels. And coffee too. So we don’t have to drink that shit Ark calls joe.” And then he rips the covers off us in a whoosh and scoops Blue up in his arms. “Eat, shower, fuck. Those are my plans for today.”

  Blue laughs as he carries her out the bedroom door. I follow along a few seconds later and find her sitting naked on top of the breakfast bar. “Brrrr,” she says, rubbing her arms.

  “You need clothes,” I say, taking a coffee from JD and handing it to her. “How will you get clothes if you refuse to leave the loft?”

  “I’ll shop for her,” JD offers. “I have excellent taste. I’ll go after we fuck.”

  Blue laughs and shakes her head. But all I can think about is what he might do while he’s shopping. “I’ll go,” I offer up, taking a bagel and grabbing the cream cheese. “You can stay with Blue.”

  JD scowls at me. “I said I’ll go.”

  I hold my hands up, surrendering. “Fine. I’m gonna make Blue stay naked all day until you get back.” When I look over her, she’s chewing slowly, watching us interact.

  “You do that. But tonight when we come home from work, and I’m ready for bed, while you have to stay up all night editing, she sleeps in my room.”

  And then he winks at her. Knowing full well he just outlined a parameter of our budding relationship.

  On nights we work, she belongs to him.

  And we work more nights than we don’t.

  So yeah.r />
  He wins.

  “What exactly do you guys do at… work?” Blue asks.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” I say quickly.

  “What the fuck?” JD asks.

  “What?” I ask back. “I don’t want her thinking about what we do.”

  “Why?” Blue interrupts.

  “Yeah,” JD says, all pissed off. “She already knows. That’s something I never understood about you, Ark. Why the fuck do you care what people think of our business?”

  “It’s porn,” I say. Like, hello?

  “So? Ray is the King of Porn here. And he never has a problem telling people what he does. We’re opening up our own site in a few weeks. There’s no way you’re gonna be able to rationalize it then.”

  “I’m not worried about rationalizing it.”

  “Bullshit. You hate the fact that we make porn. You’d rather do anything else, but you can’t because condos, and sports cars, and whatever you spend your money on, aren’t free. You’re only in this for the money.”

  “And your point?” I roll my eyes in Blue’s direction, but she’s got a serious look on her face that makes me stop and reassess. “Do you want to know what he’s gonna do tonight? I mean, really? You want me to tell you how we’ve got a girl lined up to suck his dick in a crowded club right there on the dance floor?”

  She ducks her head and chews on her bagel. “It’s none of my business what you guys do.”

  “Jesus fuck. What’s wrong with the two of you? Don’t you have any feelings, Blue? It doesn’t bother you that JD will have another woman on her knees tonight?”

  “You’re an asshole,” JD says to me.

  “Why? You wanted to talk about work.”

  “Because you want to hide it. We’re not doing anything wrong.”

  “Last week we weren’t doing anything wrong, this week we are.”

  “Why’s that?” he snarls. “This week you’re too good for porn?”

  “No, asshole. Because this week we’re in a relationship.”

  Relationship.

  Wow. For a guy who was resistant up to the last second, once he’s in, he’s all in.

  JD laughs. “We’re fucking her, Ark. We’re not marrying her.”