My eyes fought to open. The deep baritone voice of Rex was rumbling just outside the thin tent walls. It was early morning, and he was talking to another man, whom I could just barely hear.
“You didn’t call me—she ran off alone, afraid. I was worried about her, Rex.” Nate!
“I’m sorry, man.” There was a pause. “Don’t look at me like that. I sent the text saying she was safe, and you know what the fucking cell signal is like out here, but yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to call. I guess I did want some time alone with her.”
Their voices sank to whispers—their intimate outline visible against the canvas of the flimsy tent.
“Yeah, you were right about her. She’s…special.” Rex’s voice finally rose loud enough for me to hear.
Nate spoke, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Uh, we did, yeah…” Rex’s deep voice answered.
“Holy shit, you ended a two year celibacy with Penny!” Nate’s hand was on Rex’s bulging shoulder. I was worried Nate would be angry, jealous—but his voice was happy and surprised.
“Shh, dude, quiet,” I could just hear Rex warn Nate casually.
“I’m glad, I thought she’d help us for some reason. Maybe you can let go of the past and heal now?”
“Slow down a little, but yeah—it feels good to be out there again. Thanks to you.”
They were close, huddled together outside the tent, but I couldn’t see exactly how close.
“Okay, yeah man, take her home. You’re armed, right?”
Rex spoke again, his strong arm over Nate’s shoulders. “Keep our girl safe until I get back. We’ll unfuck this somehow, together. I have to finish this course with these guys…yeah, Joe’s back again. At least you’re not. I’ll see you and Penny in two days.”
Footsteps shuffled until there was a hand on the edge of the tent. “Nate—have fun, but that luscious backside is mine.”
Nate’s rich voice answered with a comedic, “Yes, sir!”
His hand pulled back the flap to the little tent, and the tall Nate ducked to climb in, with Rex directly behind him. “Morning babycakes,” he teased as my smile lit up. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed him, or how attached to him I was becoming. “I’m sorry I ran, I got confused—misunderstood things. I won’t—” The tears fought their way to my puffy eyes.
Nate crawled over next to me. He looked like perfection—and smelled even better. After two days in the same clothes and no bathing, Rex and I weren’t exactly our freshest, and the scent of Nate’s expensive, spicy cologne was heavenly. Rex sat across from us on the ground. “Penelope,” he said directly to me, his thick index finger pointing inches from my face, “I need you to obey Nate. I know submission isn’t your strong suit, but this is important. He may look like some GQ model, and smell like a salon in Paris, but he’s tough and knows what he’s doing. There are some dangerous and pissed off people here in Colombia far scarier than the ones in Vegas. Get back to our place as quickly as you can and stay there.”
He turned to Nate.
“Make her listen. Believe me, it’s not easy. If she doesn’t, toss her to the snakes,” he said with a grin, his wide hand reaching over to fluff up my hair.
Rex started to pack up camp as Nate and I stood to leave. Rex pulled me into his arms, his large frame leaning in to kiss me. At first I pulled back—kissing the man I was screwing in front of the other man I was also screwing was awkward. Even worse, I was developing strong feelings for both of them—for the first time I could remember, my feelings were far beyond sexual.
Rex’s fingers tightened their grip on my chin. His midnight blue eyes locked onto mine—he was angry. “Pull away from my kiss like that again and it’ll be the last.” I nodded. This man was intense.
Still preoccupied by Nate watching, I wrapped my arms around Rex’s muscled torso and tiptoed up to kiss him. His lips were hard on mine, forceful, possessive—I wasn’t sure if the show of power was for my benefit or Nate’s. His tongue explored my mouth as he pulled me closer, his fingertips digging into my ass and his bulging hardness pressing into my yielding body. “Better,” he snorted when his lips finally slid from mine.
Rex’s kiss left me wobbly, and it took me a second to realize that Nate was behind me, his own erect cock pressing into me. Nate’s arms were around my waist as he held me close—his own lips only inches from ours. Rex didn’t let go of me, but nodded toward Nate. “Nathaniel may have a kiss,” he said as if giving us a gift. I twisted my face toward Nate’s and, still cradled between the two strong men, my lips brushed against Nate’s—his gentle, loving kiss in beautiful contrast to Rex’s primal one seconds before.
I pouted as they both pulled their bodies from mine. Being sandwiched in between those two glorious men was the single most erotic experience of my life up until then, and we were all fully dressed.
“Almost home, Penny,” Nate chirped as he cut through some oppressive vines blocking our path. Despite the jungle heat and the difficulty of our hike, he barely broke a sweat. “I smell so bad,” I whined as he pulled me along the path. “You do smell bad,” he joked, holding his nose in mockery, “but I’d tap that anyway.” I smacked at him as he made some joke about hosing me down in the yard before letting me in the house.
“How much further?” I grumbled. I was exhausted, hungry, and very thirsty. “Not far, around this corner to the guard gate—”
“That’s far enough, gringo.”
An ominous looking man stood in front of us, his legs spread in a wide V, his hands on his hips.
Nate put his hand out to stop me from moving closer to the man.
“José, what’s this about, now?” His voice was calm, almost cordial.
The man pointed a dark finger at Nate. “We have business, you owe me money.”
“Ah,” Nate answered, running his left hand through his hair, then casually letting it rest behind his back—where the gun stuck into his waistband. “This doesn’t involve the lady—why don’t we send her inside so we can chat.” He gave me a quick pat on the back as if to urge me to head into the compound.
“I think I might like to keep this bitch as collateral.”
“I’d be careful calling Rex’s lady names, José. He can be brutal—do you remember what happened to your cousin?”
The man, José, flinched at the mention of his cousin. “I’ve got no problem with Rex or his girl—but we sent a shipment for you that you never paid for.”
Nate maintained his calm demeanor, but the tension was palpable—the situation was dangerous.
“I didn’t pay because I didn’t accept it—I’m not doing that shit anymore. Besides, Rex has all my money; you know that. If I owe you, you have to take it up with him.”
The man sighed, his mouth sinking into a grimace. “This is bullshit, and I’ll be back.” He turned and left, Nate’s hand never leaving the loaded gun until the man was out of sight.
“Let’s go get you a nice bath,” he said as if nothing had happened.
“Nate, what did he mean? What was he—?”
“Let’s talk in the suds, you smell like Rex’s armpit right now.”
“How often do you sniff Rex’s armpits, loverboy?”
He laughed out loud. “Not as often as I’d like,” he said pulling me inside.
Chapter Four
“What was it like?” I was leaned back against Nate’s strong chest in his luxurious bathtub, his long legs wrapped around mine, as he dripped soapsuds down my chest.
“What was what like?” I asked languidly, ready to sleep.
“Being with him…touching him…making love to him?” His tone was dreamy, as if he were imagining the experience.
“Are you pissed off?” I still wasn’t convinced what happened between Rex and me was okay. I felt guilty, like I’d betrayed Nate.
“Mad? No! I’m thrilled. I mean…there’s no one else in the world I’d share you with, Penelope Sedgewick, but Rex? You have no idea how much yo
u’ve helped him. Since his wife…” He went silent, as if he’d revealed too much.
“I overheard you outside the tent. You said he’d been celibate two years—was that because of her?”
“Yeah,” he dripped more soapsuds down me, focusing on a nipple.
“Did she die?” Rex’s level of intensity, the pervasive coldness about him—all of that made me sense that something dark and morbid hung over him.
“Die? No! That bitch left him for…” He went silent again.
“Why so many secrets?”
“I-I’m sorry. It’s just there’s been so much sadness, betrayal, ugliness. We need to make sure we can trust you, Penny. But we both agree there’s something about you…you just fit with us.”
“Sex with Rex was…mind-blowing. He’s intense…but sensual, erotic. With you, there’s this natural chemistry between the two of us. We just fall into each other,” I said, stroking his thigh. “It’s so good, but very natural, as if meant to be. With Rex…it’s like a pagan ritual or something—you just feel…engrossed. And you’ve seen the size of his—”
“I haven’t,” he cut me off sharply.
I sensed I’d gone too far. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be crude, I…”
“Nah, you weren’t, Penny. I just…I wish I could see it, I mean…I can’t really put it into words.”
“Are you bisexual? No reason to be embarrassed about that.”
“No! I’m not bi, I’m not gay—I’m straight, always have been. I’m very attracted to women, only women,” he said, dropping the sponge and cupping my breasts with both hands. “But,” he said quietly, “yeah, I’m physically attracted to Rex, but it’s because he’s Rex—not because of any gender. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense,” I said with finality, turning around to snuggle into his chest. His arms wrapped around my back, pulling me close. “I knew I needed you,” he whispered into my ear.
“Nate, I love being here, I feel like I’m home. But…why did you take me?”
He paused, rubbing slow circles over my shoulder blades. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to freak out. But—Rex was hired to kill you.”
It took a minute for the meaning of his words to sink in. “What?” I finally shouted, “Rex…me?” I couldn’t put together a coherent sentence.
“Calm down, babe. I overheard a man offer Rex a buttload of cash to abduct and eventually do away with you. Those were his words. Rex refused, and after some tension, the mysterious man left. I, of course, remembered you from years ago—I had a crush on you, but also—just felt we’d someday cross paths. Rex turned the job down, but there are plenty of others I knew would accept. I tricked Rex into going with me to Vegas—I told him I wanted to see my father—but instead I captured you.”
My mind was reeling. “Rex kills people?”
“Not anymore,” Nate answered defensively, “and certainly not for hire.”
“Who would want me…why?” It made no sense. I meant very little to anybody between the time my mother died and when I fell into these two men in Colombia.
“I don’t know, but I knew I had to protect you. That night on the plane—Rex watched us…I knew then that you might be the connection we needed to make us complete. Rex loves me…he says I captured him, but the truth is he saved me in so many ways. We pulled each other away from destruction—together, we are so much better. But something was missing—he was never going to be able to allow the sort of relationship I craved. But you, Penny—you’ve awakened him. And, he’s done the same for you. You are so much stronger, so different after being out in the jungle with him.”
“I killed a snake!” I gloated.
He smiled wide. “I heard! You are so much more than you think you are. I’m so…I’m falling hard for you, Penelope Sedgewick.” He kissed me, the bubbles crinkling between us in the cooling bathwater.
We dried off, and Nate carried me to bed in his arms. His room was elegant, expensive—his style, recreated in Rex’s utilitarian compound in the middle of the rainforest. In the silky Italian sheets, he hovered over my naked body, still dewy from the long bath, and drew my face to his. “I-I’m falling for you, Pen, I can’t help it.” I pressed my lips to his, inhaling him, before pulling back to answer, “I’ve already fallen, Nathaniel.”
Nate was tireless—he could come hard and unrelenting, then go again without even withdrawing from me. His desire to please me, to make me shake with pleasure, fed his own arousal. I’d never known a man like him. That night, we made love for hours until eventually we collapsed wrapped in each other, the howling of the creatures of the night lulling us to sleep.
Sometime before dawn, we stirred, our bodies joining one more time in a sleepy embrace. Afterward, the dark morning was quiet and still. “Why does Rex control your money?” I asked with a yawn.
“To protect me. I’ve recovered, Penny, I’m clean—thanks to Rex. But, like any addict, I’ve had setbacks. After the last time, I turned over control of my finances to keep from ever buying again.”
“So all of this is yours?”
“No,” he yawned. “The plane is, but Rex had this place before we met, and he does very well from his business.”
“How much does he make killing people,” I asked without thinking.
“Pen, he doesn’t…I know he did some classified shit in the military and after, but that’s all. People like me pay a lot of money for his guidance—don’t be surprised when you get his bill for your time in the jungle,” he said, kissing my shoulder as I drifted off to sleep.
Nate and I scurried around the next day, watching the rain pour down and anxiously awaiting the return of the larger-than-life Rex Renton. There was one text from him saying that the heavy rain was slowing them down on their journey back. Nate tried to call, but couldn’t get through to Rex’s Blackberry. We went to sleep that night, curled together in Nate’s bed in post-coital bliss.
“Move over.” The gruff whisper in my ear roused me in the wee hours of the morning. It took me a moment to process that Rex was really there, damp and smelling of soap. I slid into Nate, making room for the boxer-brief clad Rex to lie down behind me. Nate was sound asleep, barely responding when I nudged him over. I rolled toward Rex.
“You’re home!”
“Uh huh,” he muttered. “Tired,” he said, his eyes closing as he wrapped his powerful arms around me. I fell back to sleep in the warm embrace of the two most fascinating men I’d ever known.
When I woke up, Rex was still in a deep sleep behind me, his arms and legs entwined with mine as if he were making sure I didn’t leave. He’d shaven after his middle of the night shower, his skin smoother than I’d ever seen it. I planted a kiss on his cheek as Nate opened his bedroom door carrying a tray. “You made breakfast?” I whispered, trying to let Rex sleep. “Maria,” he whispered as he set the tray down at the end of the wide bed. I untangled from Rex’s vine-like embrace and scooted toward Nate, who handed me a cup of coffee. “He looks so innocent when he sleeps,” I joked, picking at a fluffy croissant. “Sleeping lion, maybe,” Nate said, munching on a sugary donut.
Rex took a deep breath and rolled over, his washboard-hard abs flexing as he exhaled. “Any other piercings besides that one,” I whispered to Nate, pointing at Rex’s metal-impaled right nipple, “and of course, the peen-jewelry?” Nate’s eyes widened as he attacked a jelly donut.
“What? Rex Junior is pierced? Are you serious?”
I nodded with a giggle.
“Oh holy fuck,” Nate laughed, shoving the last of the sticky donut into his mouth.
On our second cup of coffee, Rex still in deep sleep, I asked, “Has he ever slept in here before?”
Nate shook his head. “Hell no! I’m shocked…and pretty damn over the moon.”
“And I never will again if you two don’t shut the fuck up and let me sleep,” Rex growled from underneath a pillow.
We snickered like kids, shushing each other as we packed u
p our breakfast in bed.
It was noon before Rex finally emerged from Nate’s bed. He stumbled into the kitchen, still in his underwear, ran a hand through his sexy bedhead, and told Maria to make him steak and eggs. As he sat at the breakfast bar reading a newspaper in Spanish, I spied on him from around the corner. “Come in, Penny,” he eventually said like an exasperated parent.
I came out of hiding from the doorframe and slinked up to sit on a stool next to him. “Why are you hovering?” he asked patiently as Maria placed his plate in front of him. “I missed you, that’s all. You were asleep forever.”
“I’ve been in the jungle for a week, Princess. And, I’m nearly twice your age. I needed a little sleep. Where’s Nate?” He glanced back at his newspaper.
“He said he needed to go into the city to buy supplies. He’ll be back this afternoon.”
“He go alone?” Rex flipped a page in his paper.
“No, he went with one of the drivers.”
Rex nodded, not looking up, before shoveling eggs into his mouth.
When he’d finished eating, he folded his paper and leaned back with a mug of black coffee. I was nervous, unsure of what to do next, and felt out of place in his house. “Okay, Penny, you’re not a prisoner here,” he said with a sigh. “I feel it’s dangerous for you to leave, and I’d like you to stay with us until it’s safe for you to go back. Can you do that?” He looked pointedly at me. “Yes,” I answered heartily. “Good then,” he smiled, “let’s get to know each other.” I sat across from him, waiting. “When did you get your last birth control shot? Was it Depo-Provera?” he asked gruffly. “I-uh, I’m not sure…” I felt like I was sitting in the gynecologist’s office all of a sudden. “Do you need to look at a calendar?” he snapped. “No, uh, it was...May fifth.” He nodded, satisfied that I wouldn’t need another dose anytime soon. “Your turn, what do you want to know?” I smiled, surprised he was willing to open up with me. “Uh, okay, who hired you to kill me?” His expression never changed, but he slid his plate toward Maria and said, “No comment. Discussion over.”
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