“Whoa,” Jimmy croaked, staring at Sabrina, then back at Gabriel. He thought he remembered how gorgeous Gabriel was, how his lips felt, how he tasted, but nothing in his memory compared to this. Knowing Sabrina was there the whole time, watching, participating, made it even hotter. He swallowed as Gabriel nodded and took a deep breath, then relaxed his grip in Sabrina’s hair, smoothing it down over her shoulders. Jimmy did the same on the other side.
“Well,” Sabrina said, “so much for taking it slow.” Gabriel laughed and stood up, straightening his pants. It didn’t do much to hide the arousal pressing against the fabric. She licked her lips, and he shuddered.
“I think that pretty much sums it up,” he stated, visibly pulling himself together. When Jimmy stood, Sabrina caught him staring at Gabriel, too; then he turned to her, his expression mischievous.
“I told you he was hot,” he smirked, and she chuckled as Gabriel protested.
“You totally are,” she stated, then blushed, moving off the bed to gather her pajamas, feeling suddenly shy. “Look, I’m going to go to sleep now. We can figure this all out tomorrow.” Sabrina wondered what had happened to her world. The two men hesitated and she thought Gabriel was going to protest, but then Jimmy nodded and agreed.
“You’re right. We’ve got a lot to deal with, and I could use a good night’s sleep to clear my head.” Jimmy leaned over, pecking her on the cheek before moving toward the door. Gabriel looked at her, then leaned over and kissed her, too, nipping her lips affectionately before walking out of the room. Jimmy laughed from the doorway as she stood there, mussed and exasperated and not at all sleepy anymore.
* * * *
The next few weeks passed in a blur as Gabriel settled into the house. After a brief discussion and over her protests, the men decided that the three of them ought to keep their distance from each other while trying to track down the shooter. Sabrina was disappointed, though she understood their reasoning. The danger she was too tired to comprehend fully that first day was brought into clear focus as she watched Gabriel prowl around the house and confer with the local police and FBI. Nobody wanted to take risks with her safety, and getting romantically involved would be a huge distraction for them.
Still, she’d just begun to entertain the idea of being Jimmy’s girlfriend and she didn’t think putting the brakes on her feelings was going to be easy. Maybe it would be simple for the men to ignore the passion simmering between them, but she knew she couldn’t. She could hide it, probably, but she wouldn’t be able to deny how she felt to herself. She didn’t want to deny how she felt. And Gabriel might prove to be just as dangerous as Jimmy to my emotions, she thought. He was quiet and strong and had a wicked sense of humor that only grew more attractive to her as the days went by. Almost every night she found herself remembering the kisses they’d shared, and every time Gabriel smiled at her, or helped her in the kitchen, or made her laugh, she felt herself falling for him. Watching Jimmy tease Gabriel and make him feel welcome only made her love for Jimmy stronger. Yet, despite her yearning, both men kept their distance.
Sabrina needed to do something to take her mind off the gorgeous men living in her space, so after a few weeks, she immersed herself in her photography, shooting some still-life compositions, rereading books. At odd moments, she would find herself remembering what it felt like to kiss them. Unfortunately, using photography to take her mind off them did the opposite as she slowly came to realize how desperately she wanted to photograph them together. She rarely did portraits because she felt like something inside her needed to really understand a person before she could imagine how they would look on film. She needed to internalize an essential understanding of what was beneath the skin, and it surprised her how badly she wanted to capture the two men after such a short time living in the same house. She dreamed about what they would look like in the sunlight, wondered how she could translate all that masculine beauty into two dimensions without losing the heart of who they were. She often found herself staring at them, somewhat surprised at the intensity of her feelings.
As she grappled with this need, she grew to love Gabriel’s sly sense of humor, how he often teased Jimmy unexpectedly, making them all laugh hysterically at dinner or at night when they watched television together. She learned that she wanted to hear Jimmy’s laugh as much as possible. She delighted in hearing the stories about Gabriel’s undercover assignments, and to her astonishment, Gabriel even convinced Jimmy to open up about Afghanistan. Neither man treated her like a kid, instead talking to her and asking her opinion seriously.
For the first time, she was able to talk to someone about photography. Her father indulged her and encouraged her and didn’t argue when she pursued it, but he didn’t really understand how she felt about it. Jimmy and Gabriel both seemed to realize that she had an instinctive need to record and shape what she saw. They understood her obsession for visuals and questioned her over and over about the shootings and her impressions of the people involved in both incidents, using her eye for detail as a tool to help with the case. Sabrina was happier than she’d ever been, except for one thing: neither man seemed to feel for her or each other the intense desire she had for them, an attraction she still wrestled with every day. Had she imagined everything?
She would have despaired completely, except after several weeks, she caught Gabriel looking at Jimmy, once in the kitchen and once in the hallway, where Jimmy stood in a shaft of late afternoon sunlight. His brown hair was lit with the gold, red, and darker brown colors that she loved so much. He looked beautiful. He was reading something on a piece of paper just as Gabriel turned the corner from the kitchen. Sabrina lounged in the den, trying to concentrate on a new photography magazine, not easy with Jimmy standing there looking amazing. When Gabriel suddenly stopped, a look of such naked longing passed over his face, she gasped. He glanced sharply at her, and to her shock, the heat in his eyes grew even stronger as he glanced from her face down her body before he abruptly turned on his heel and walked back to the kitchen. Jimmy never noticed, but not an hour later she caught him sneaking sidelong glances at Gabriel’s hands when the other man joined them in the den.
After that, she knew the arousal simmering just under the surface was breaking loose. She’d be making breakfast at the stove and turn around to find Jimmy staring at her, his face tight with desire. After eating lunch one day, she walked into the den to see if Jimmy had taken a break from his latest article and found the two men staring at each other in silence. As soon as they noticed her, Jimmy went back to writing on his laptop and Gabriel fumbled with his phone. Another time she woke from a nap in her room to find Gabriel standing in the doorway, his eyes tracing their way over her body. The look on his face scorched her. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t move until he blinked and turned away, stepping hurriedly down the stairs. After that, she walked around perpetually flushed. She knew it was just a matter of time before something happened or she went stark, raving mad.
Finally, three weeks after Gabriel came to stay, she told him and Jimmy that she had to go to work. Sabrina knew neither man was going to be happy about her leaving the house, but by then the sexual tension was so high she couldn’t function. She needed a break. And she needed the money for grad school in the fall since she wouldn’t be living with her father anymore. Every summer, she worked at a local portrait studio, from the last week in June until the last week in August. And each year, the local community group commissioned photographs of the Fourth of July parade queen and her court. The job was too difficult for one person, and she didn’t want to abandon Joy, her boss, after all she’d taught her the past two summers.
This particular shoot wasn’t her favorite because she didn’t like the people they’d be photographing, but she promised she would be there. Unfortunately, this year’s Fourth of July queen was also spring fling queen from Sabrina’s college, and the court was the queen’s date from the dance and all the runners-up. None of them had been very nice to her when they were in school,
and she was under no illusion that this would change now that they’d graduated.
“Absolutely not!” Jimmy retorted after she’d mentioned the job to him. They were in the kitchen.
“Jimmy, I can’t let Joy down.” Sabrina crossed her arms and watched him butter his toast. She’d already eaten but wished she hadn’t. She felt her morning coffee slosh uncomfortably in her stomach as she glared at him.
“What’s ‘absolutely not’?” Gabriel asked as he walked into the kitchen. He carried his gun and holster and set both down on the table as he pulled out a cloth and small bottle from his jeans pocket. Sabrina glanced at him, then turned her attention back to Jimmy.
“I need to go to work today. Joy can’t handle this shoot alone.”
Jimmy shook his head as Gabriel sat down next to him and began taking apart his gun, setting each of the pieces in a row on the table atop the cloth he’d spread out.
“It’s too dangerous for her to go,” Jimmy said, finishing his toast and wiping his face with a napkin. To her disgust, he still looked gorgeous, even when she was angry with him. He was wearing blue again, one of her favorite colors. She sighed, trying to wrench her eyes away from his nicely muscled chest, and tried again.
“I need to go to work. Nothing has happened in nearly three weeks. Maybe the shooter has given up.”
“Maybe you want a convenient way to commit suicide?” Jimmy glared at her, pouring himself more coffee from the pot on the table.
“Jimmy—”
“We’ll go with her,” Gabriel interrupted, looking at Jimmy as he paused in his cleaning.
Jimmy set down his coffee. “What? She’ll be completely exposed!” he insisted angrily. Gabriel shook his head slowly, thinking it over.
“If the two of us are there, we can check out the building and guard the exits. I assume this is an indoor studio, right?”
Sabrina nodded and explained, “We’ll be in the back room, where it’s easier to control the light for this particular shoot.”
She looked warily from Gabriel to Jimmy, hoping they would relent and let her out of the house. She understood the need for safety, but she desperately needed some fresh air. She needed a break from the sexual tension that hung between them, relentlessly coloring every conversation, every glance. Even if the two men accompanied her, she hoped the distraction of the shoot and company of other people would give her libido a much-needed rest.
“Okay, we go in and check it out, guard the exits. Considering how quiet it’s been, the shooter may be off on other business or he may have concluded that she’s too well guarded in the house. Either way, we need to get out of here or we’re all going to go crazy,” Gabriel said, gesturing with his cleaning cloth. Jimmy scowled at him and Sabrina wondered if either man realized how tense things had become. Gabriel fidgeted with his equipment more than necessary, while Jimmy paced around the house like a caged animal. Sabrina found it both annoying and amusing as she’d caught each man more than once stealing glances at the other. They looked sexy even when frustrated. She watched as Gabriel shifted in the seat, trying to adjust himself discreetly.
Jimmy shook his head slowly. “How can we guarantee her safety in that situation?” he asked. His hair stood on end from where he’d run his hands through the strands. He looks hot, Sabrina thought. She was so relieved that Gabriel was on her side—Jimmy couldn’t blame her later if something went wrong. And we really do need to get out of this house. Then she realized that if she took them to work with her, her former classmates were going to see her interacting closely with two very attractive men. She wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. Although, if Gabriel and Jimmy let me pretend to be their girlfriend, it would be worth it. Sabrina imagined the look on the girls’ faces until she realized they probably wouldn’t believe her even if she flat-out told them she had two boyfriends. Boyfriends, she repeated to herself, smirking. Sabrina hoped she could actually claim that at some point.
“There’s no way to completely guarantee her safety, you know that,” Gabriel said. Jimmy sighed and looked from Sabrina to Gabriel, then back again. She held her breath.
“This is insane,” he insisted quietly, but she could tell he’d capitulated. She smiled and phoned Joy to let her know she’d be coming in today as planned. Gabriel called his partner and explained what they were doing and then called the local police to see if they would do a drive-by while they were in the studio.
* * * *
At four o’clock, the three of them walked into Joy’s Portraits Photography downtown. Before going in, Gabriel made Sabrina wait in the car with Jimmy while he walked around the outside of the building. The small studio was set in the midst of a mini-mall between a bakery and a video store. It was about three blocks down from the bistro where the original shooting had occurred, and busy like usual on a Wednesday afternoon, though the church across the street was quiet. The trees planted along the road fluttered their leaves in the wind and Sabrina contemplated how lovely it felt to finally be out after weeks of what amounted to house arrest.
The studio’s small entry room contained a desk and some chairs where customers could wait for their appointments. Today, all four seats were occupied by the Fourth of July queen, Angelina, and her court. The king and the other three guys stood near the bay front window, joking and talking about basketball as they fiddled with their suit jackets.
Sabrina grimaced as she followed Jimmy inside. She wasn’t looking forward to interacting with them. Happily, she didn’t even have to greet them before Joy came rushing out of the studio’s back room.
“Sabrina! How are you doing? I missed you!” Joy’s arms opened to give Sabrina a hug. The girl returned her embrace, enjoying the scent of the older woman’s orange blossom perfume when her short hair swung around to brush against her cheek. Joy pulled back, and Sabrina smiled at her.
“I’m fine, Joy. Glad to be done with college.” Joy smiled and Sabrina watched as her friend straightened her cream-colored sweater so that it lay smoothly on top of her brown slacks.
“My friends wanted to come with me, watch the shoot, if that’s okay with you?” She waved her hands to indicate Jimmy and Gabriel.
Jimmy lounged against the studio door, looking all sorts of sexy, while Gabriel stood closer to the center. Both men wore a T-shirt and jeans, though Gabriel wore a black leather jacket over his to hide his holster and weapon. They smiled lazily, and she was struck again by their handsomeness. When she saw the younger guys on the other end of the room eyeing them warily, she also realized how dangerous Jimmy and Gabriel looked. She was used to joking around with them, but both men had been in combat situations, and it showed in the way they moved, the strong, lethal grace of their bodies. Gabriel had a way of walking that told the people he encountered that violence lurked just beneath the surface. Add that hint of danger to a glimpse of his holster and you end up with a very lethal-looking man, Sabrina thought.
She glanced at Jimmy, who was no longer leaning against the door but carefully prowling the room. He looked outside the window before walking back and eyeing the studio, committing to memory all available exits. He’d told her and Gabriel the other night that he got used to checking out his surroundings while in Afghanistan. He moved like a predator. As Sabrina watched him shift his weight and peer out the window between the blinds, she caught a hint of black peeking out of his back pocket and realized he’d packed his knife. Yup, dangerous. Sabrina smiled to herself.
She exchanged pleasantries with Joy for another few minutes, trying not to stare too obviously at Jimmy and Gabriel. She didn’t want to be unprofessional. However, when the older woman shuffled everyone into the back room, wanting to get started, she caught Angelina looking speculatively at Jimmy and then Gabriel. Then the other girls dissolved into giggles. Sabrina rolled her eyes, though she had to admit, she couldn’t blame them for their interest.
“Let’s get busy, shall we?” Joy said as they paused inside the back half of the studio, chuckling as she caught sight of Sab
rina’s disgust. Sabrina loved Joy for her perception and enthusiasm and how generously she shared those qualities. Even at sixty years old, she managed to make every photo session both fun and useful, in between needling her about getting a boyfriend. After Joy rounded up Angelina and the others, she winked and slung her arm around Sabrina’s waist.
“I told you to get one boyfriend, Sabrina, not two!” Joy laughed quietly into Sabrina’s ear before releasing her. Sabrina laughed and began setting up the lights.
“How do you know they’re my boyfriends?” she asked, adjusting a diffuser near the camera.
“Please, don’t insult my intelligence,” Joy replied, bumping her on the arm with an elbow. “I could see the way they both looked at you, my dear.”
Sabrina raised her eyebrows. She thought they’d tried to keep the attraction under wraps while they were in public, but she was delighted to find out that neither man was bothering to hide much. Or couldn’t hide much. Maybe the moratorium on dating would soon be over, yay! she thought as she gathered up the other lights and began arranging them around the stools.
The girls and boys in the photo shoot were already exploring the backdrop and the rest of the studio. Jimmy walked the room’s perimeter, peeking into the bathroom and then checking the back door that opened onto the parking lot and garbage bins at the rear of the building. Gabriel had already finished his check, stopping behind Sabrina when she finished with the lights. She looked at Joy speculatively, wondering if the two men had really been looking at her, and Joy nodded sagely as Gabriel laughed, making her jump.
Leaf, Erin M. - The First Time is the Sweetest (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 9