by Zoey Thames
“What’s your idea?” Michelle asked softly.
That was all the encouragement Aaron needed. Ex-military or not, the man could never keep a secret. “It’s a beautiful idea,” Aaron assured them, leaning toward her and flashing that endearing grin. “You trained to be a broker, right? Then you got screwed over by that jackass. So, what if we buy the brokerage firm you used to work at and give it to you? You can be boss to your ex. Do the exact same thing to him. Payback’s a bitch.”
Michelle looked at Aaron for a long moment, then she turned to meet Jackson’s gaze. “You’d do that for me?”
Jackson felt a twitch of concern, making his unease deepen. Money was certainly not an issue. And while he would be thrilled to set her up with any company she desired, there was something about the tone of her voice…a note he couldn’t quite read…
Aaron laughed, apparently not noticing that same note. “Of course we would.”
She stood and moved to the large suite windows looking out over the city of Chicago. She didn’t answer. Jackson’s unease deepened.
“Don’t worry about the money,” Aaron added. “It’s nothing. I’ll make a few calls when we get back to New York. We’ll turn a profit on the deal.”
“No,” Michelle finally answered.
The word stabbed through Jackson. He wanted to move to her, to take her into his arms, but right now he sensed that she needed her space. If he got too close, he would only drive her away.
Aaron frowned as if he didn’t believe he’d heard her correctly. “What do you mean, no? This is a great idea.”
“He hurt me,” she said, placing her hand on the window, still staring out at the skyscrapers rising around them and the streets far below. “That’s true. But he wasn’t worthy of my love. I couldn’t do that to another person, not even if they deserve it. It would make me as bad as he is.”
Aaron didn’t answer. He only watched her with an intensity that Jackson completely understood. She was amazing. She was certainly a better person than he’d ever been. It made him proud of her. It made him love her.
She glanced back at Aaron and gave him a small, tight smile. “Thank you. It is an offer so generous it’s melting my brain a little. But…no. That place is in my past. The harm he did me is in my past.” Her eyes warmed. “Besides, if it hadn’t happened, I never would have met you two.”
Jackson could see the complexity of emotion in Aaron’s eyes. Even after all this time, he could still read the man like a book. There was hurt that she’d turned down his offer. There was pleasure at the words she’d finished with—about meeting them. About how happy she sounded.
Jackson knew he couldn’t remain on the sidelines in this conversation. “We want to do something for you. It’s how…it’s how alphas show their commitment, their…feelings. Aaron didn’t mean it as charity.”
“I understand,” she said softly. “But I still can’t accept. In fact…it’s probably best if we leave things the way they are. Or the way they were…before tonight.”
He gaped at her, dumbfounded by the finality in her voice, staggered by her words. Aaron looked stricken.
After a moment, she continued, pinning him with her gaze. “This is over. It was wonderful. Beautiful. The best time of my life. But you go back to the West Coast. Aaron goes back to the East Coast. I go back to Brooklyn and to working nights. It can’t work. It’s over.”
“You’re right,” Jackson said, his heart pounding in his chest. “It is over.”
He saw the hurt in her eyes, the flinch, that even though she’d said it first, she’d wanted him, wanted them to prove different.
He went to her and pulled her into his arms. He gently cupped her perfect face and kissed her perfect lips. Then he looked into her eyes and made certain he had every bit of her attention. “What this is, right now, it’s over. But we are going to make something completely new.” He glanced at Aaron and smiled. “It is time to put our money where our mouth is. It’s time for commitments. I want to merge Alpha Protection Services and Dark Howl.”
Aaron’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“Deadly serious. You be president, I’ll be CEO. Or whatever arrangement works. We were always stronger together anyway.” He looked back to Michelle. “Nothing is over unless we let it be over. I did that once. Denied my mate. Went to the other side of the country.” He leaned toward her and whispered, “It didn’t work.”
She looked away first, unable to hold his stare. Her voice was hesitant, almost lost. “I want to believe that. I want to believe my heart will be safe with you both. I want to trust…”
“Then do,” Aaron said, coming over and putting his arms around her protectively. “I can’t tell you how special this trip has been. It’s like a perfect dream, and I’m afraid I’ll wake up and find I’ve lost you, lost Jackson again. I don’t want to pressure you, but I also want to point out the hope.” He grinned at Jackson. “Because if we can find common ground together, so can you.”
Jackson touched her cheek. “Exactly. You don’t want us to buy that other place? I respect that. But you aren’t getting off easy. We will do something special for you. A thousand special things, just to start. Because that’s one of the ways we show our love. And it is love.”
She nodded, biting her lips, and he could hear her heart beating fast, scent the emotions of love and hope coming from her.
“He’s exactly right,” Aaron said to Michelle. “This isn’t over for you, but we’ll honor your wishes. However, we will show you how important you are to us. I’m not going to lose you. Ever.”
Jackson nodded. “I won’t lose you either.” He wiped away one of her tears that had trickled down her cheek to her jaw and kissed her again. “But Aaron spoke the truth. This isn’t over. If I learned anything yesterday, it’s that love like this is never over.”
She stared up at him, her eyes wide, trembling in his arms. “Love,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Aaron said, shifting to embrace them both. “Love. You don’t have to say the word now, but I know what I feel.” Aaron turned her face to him and captured her lips in a passionate kiss. “And I know how Jackson feels.” He gave that same kiss to Jackson, rocking him on his heels with the fervor in the press of his mate’s lips.
Michelle watched them, smiling, crying with joy, giving herself over completely into their embrace. The tension had gone, replaced by new hope. The future was still there, waiting for them. Now he and Aaron would face it together, no longer competing but supporting each other, making each other stronger. And he owed it all to this incredible woman. This beautiful, kind, smart woman who had barged in on their kiss.
He wanted to give her the world. He would give her everything. They would give her everything. The moment simply had to be right. But for now, he would take the fact that she loved them back and he would cherish it.
The three of them would make it work. Their little three-way pack.
He couldn’t have been happier.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Oh, the sweet anticipation Michelle felt as the jet finally left the runway and began to gain altitude. She was sitting in the center section of the plane in a leather seat with Jackson and Aaron seated nearby. No one was speaking much, but the feeling between the three of them was easy, comfortable, sated.
Except for her, that was. She was only acting as if she was at ease—and you could forget anything about being sated—because she was tormented with a craving that wouldn’t be denied. A fantasy that had tantalized her when she’d been kept in the plane’s gorgeous stateroom on the flight to Chicago. She squeezed her thighs together, shifting, desperate to get even a little friction to ease some of the lust and ache in her core. She was already sopping wet just considering this.
She wanted to do something special with them, to show them how she felt about them. She wanted to make love to them here. To crash her way into the mile-high club the same way she’d crashed into their kiss and set this whole thing in motion. She wanted th
e world far below her. She wanted to feel like a goddess with her two gods. She wanted sex at forty thousand feet.
The wait for the plane to reach cruising altitude was pure torture. Aaron seemed to sense something was up with her. She saw him lift his nose a bit, scenting the air, his eyes narrowing as his lips curved in a smile at her. A thrill went through her when she realized he was scenting the musk of her arousal and it was setting him off.
She gave him her wickedest grin and saw his interest sharpen. Then she leaned over to whisper in Jackson’s ear. “I need you. In me. Now.”
Jackson’s eyes widened. The passion she saw spark to life in his eyes made her feel powerful. She stood and made her way toward the stateroom in the back of the jet. She paused once, throwing a coy glance over her shoulder.
Her two werewolves didn’t need a written invitation. They seemed as eager as she was. She entered the stateroom and headed for the bed, standing beside it.
Aaron entered first, his expression serious and focused. He watched her as if he didn’t want to miss an instant of her movements. Meanwhile, Jackson shut the door behind him and locked it. The sound of the lock engaging sent a zing of pleasure straight to her core.
“Take that off,” Aaron said to her, his voice rough with command. His gaze seemed to promise her so many wicked things to come. “Now.”
Without a word, she slowly shrugged out of her uniform jacket and tossed it aside without a care, loving the way both men’s attention locked onto her breasts as they strained at the white button-down shirt beneath when she moved. Next, she kicked off her polished leather shoes and pulled apart her tie. She slowly undid the buttons on her uniform blouse. She pulled it open to expose her breasts to them.
“No bra,” Jackson said, his voice shaking with lust. “Naughty girl.”
She grinned at him and left the shirt on but open, then she peeled off her slacks and took her time with her panties. Making them wait. Knowing they both sported huge erections as they watched her every motion.
“On the bed,” Aaron growled.
Ooh, she loved that alpha-command in the bedroom. She grinned as she lay back on the bed, her uniform shirt still on but gaping open to reveal her naked body. She slowly spread her legs, exposing her wet pussy to them. Taunting them, tempting them.
Both men were standing at the foot of the bed. Both of them were watching her. Jackson’s blue eyes were so intense they seemed to glow. Aaron’s hazel gaze seemed to sear its way along her skin, hot enough to burn.
Her heart was beating hard and fast. She took in breaths in quick, eager sips. Her head was spinning with lust, with need. This was what she wanted. Both of them. With her. The passion. The love. The sharing. She wanted to fuck them and be fucked by them. She wanted their pleasure to rival hers. And she was determined to have her way.
Aaron’s grin was wide, but his gaze was scorching hot as he drank her in. He tore away his clothes, flinging them aside. Then he was between her thighs. He pulled her toward him so that he leaned over her, naked, his muscular body sculpted by the sunlight streaming in through the jet’s round windows. With agonizing precision, he leaned down and gently spread the lips of her pussy, then dipped his head to trace her slit with his tongue, bottom to top.
She shuddered and groaned, letting her head loll back as he went down on her. His tongue was amazing. She closed her eyes to revel in the incredible sensations as he thrust his tongue deep into her, then flicked it up to trace around her clit, first one way, then the other, keeping her guessing, keeping her body on edge but always climbing steadily toward orgasm.
When Aaron groaned, she cracked open an eyelid to see that Jackson was naked and behind Aaron. The sight of him stroking lube along the condom on his rigid cock threatened to overheat her right then and there. Then he was lubing up Aaron from behind with the same care he’d shown her last night as the three of them had made love together.
He spotted her watching him. His grin was fierce. “You like what you see, beautiful?”
She could only nod, words lost to her.
“Good,” he said and eased himself into Aaron.
Aaron didn’t lift his head from her pussy. She lost herself in the incredible sensations. He slid one finger into her, circling her clit with his tongue while curling his finger inside her wet channel until he hit that spot that made her come apart as if she were a puppet and all her strings had been cut. She lay there thrashing weakly as powerful convulsions shook her body—an orgasm so intense she could barely breathe.
At the same time, Jackson had reached his climax—or that’s what she assumed when he loosed a string of profanities, his expression intense as he fucked Aaron from behind. But finally he slowed, gasping, and pulled out of his mate.
Michelle lazily turned her gaze to Aaron as she still lay there with her legs spread wide, her juices and his saliva on her thighs, on her pussy. But she knew he wasn’t going to be denied his pleasure.
He pulled her to him, positioned his hard cock at her pussy entrance, and sank in, balls deep. She shuddered from the incredible sensations, heightened after her orgasm only moments before. He began to fuck her slowly, caressing her breast with one hand, the other holding himself upright over her so that he had the perfect thrusting angle.
“Oh God, Aaron,” she panted, the words slipping out between her helpless moans. “God, I’m coming.”
“Yes,” he growled, watching her thrash helplessly beneath him. “Come for me.”
The orgasm loomed over her, threatening to break like a towering wave and drown her in pleasure. She fought against it, not wanting this to end yet, not wanting him to stop fucking her.
Then Jackson was beside her on the bed, still naked, his cock now soft, but his eyes still full of lust. He began to mercilessly tease her nipples even as Aaron kept thrusting into her pussy. Then Jackson traced kisses up her neck before murmuring in her ear, sending a shudder through her. “Don’t fight it, love. Give in to us. Let yourself go.”
She gave a gasp as Aaron thrust deep into her again, his cock filling her pussy, driving her toward the edge. Again she fought against coming, wanting to draw this out as long as possible. But when Jackson placed his teeth against her neck and gently bit—not breaking skin, only marking her—when she felt that pressure, it was all suddenly too much. She shattered apart. The orgasm crashed down on her, taking every part of her and owning her.
Aaron drove into her one last time and shot over that cliff, sinking into her all the way to his balls and releasing. All his muscles tensed as his orgasm took him. She was still shuddering around him, her thighs shaking from the force of her own orgasm.
She was a long, blissful time coming down from the heights she’d reached. Gradually they shifted positions until she was lying between them, Jackson on her left, Aaron on her right, naked and loving the feel of bare skin on bare skin. The bed was comfortable and warm. Her mind was still humming from the force of her two orgasms, but now she was completely and utterly sated. She snuggled deeper into the arms of her two men. They held her tighter.
Clouds drifted by outside the jet. The sky was bright blue. The sunlight on the clouds made them seem a heavenly white. She let go of her fears that what she’d discovered with these two incredible men would ever end. She simply closed her eyes and accepted that she was the luckiest woman on earth.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Strangely enough, it felt good to be back behind the wheel of her limo again. It had been waiting for them, parked exactly where she had left it. Aaron had made a few arrangements with the airfield management, and he’d even had a security detail stay overnight to watch the limo and make certain it was okay.
That bit of thoughtfulness had earned Aaron a scorching kiss.
Now as she drove away from the airport, she reached out and touched her good luck charm still dangling from the rearview mirror. Aaron and Jackson were in the back. The privacy guard was down and she listened with half an ear to their talk of mergers and acquisitions and setti
ng up headquarters for their new combined company in New York City. The rest of her mind was occupied with lazy memories of all that had happened last night and today.
Traffic was starting to build as she cruised back toward Manhattan. She was going to drop Aaron and Jackson off at the Ritz-Carlton. They were both planning on staying in New York for the next few days at least. After that, they had casually mentioned getting a penthouse in the Manhattan area. The thought of both her men living together in the city made her center feel like warm caramel. It was a happiness that melted all the way through her.
She glanced at the good luck charm bracelet again, smiling to herself. Then a thought hit her, catching her completely by surprise. But the moment it popped into her brain, she knew it was right. She slowed a little in downtown traffic, searching the crowds of people on the sidewalk. Looking for the right person…
Her two men in back didn’t seem to notice she’d slowed or that she was scanning the crowds. A moment later, she spotted exactly what she needed. She pulled to the curb in a spot just vacated by a taxi speeding away.
A young woman was walking along, weaving her way through the crowds, but the expression on her face was unhappy, maybe even a touch sad. Pressing the button to lower the window, she leaned down to look out and called to the woman. “Hi, can you help me for a moment?”
The woman glanced at her but kept walking. Michelle hid a smile and edged the car forward. There were a few honks behind her, but she ignored them. Honks were white noise in New York traffic.
The young woman wore jeans, a T-shirt, and jacket, with a backpack slung over her shoulder. College-age. Looking much like Michelle had only a few years back.
“What’s this all about?” Aaron asked, grinning as he leaned forward. Apparently sex on planes put him in a good mood. She laughed to herself. Of course they did.