by Jamie Begley
She gave a low moan when Jonas’s mouth found her heated core, spreading the lips of her pussy to delicately lick the already damp flesh. Then, lurching upward at the sensations attacking her, she traveled her mouth down Hammer’s chest, poised above her from her side, exploring every ridge and angle until she reached the hard cock that was begging for her attention. Rubbing her thumb over the bulbous head, she felt Hammer jerk above her as Jonas nudged her thighs farther apart so he could circle his tongue around her clit before sucking it into his mouth to tease it with his teeth.
She tried to keep stroking Hammer’s cock while Jonas played her body like a magician, making it hard for her to concentrate on Hammer. It was like being a kaleidoscope, and every movement of their bodies created different shards of pleasure to form a picture of such beauty that she couldn’t believe it existed. Deep down, she knew that was why she had run.
It couldn’t exist.
And if they really did it, it wouldn’t last.
So many things could tarnish their perfect picture, like others who wouldn’t condone a polyamorous relationship. Or they could implode it themselves. Would jealousy rear its head and break them apart? The relationship had so many potential barriers that she couldn’t foresee.
“Mika, it’ll work.” Hammer’s voice settled over her like a comforting mantle.
“I was talking out loud again, wasn’t I?”
“Yes. And it’s the truth. Jonas and I are strong enough to protect you.”
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t need you to protect me. I really don’t care what people say about us. I’m worried about you and Jonas. I don’t want either of you hurt.”
“Babe, no one is stupid enough to say anything in front of us.” Jonas brought his mouth to the tender skin of her thigh, giving her a small love bite. The exquisite pleasure had her wanting him to do that to her clit.
Lifting her thigh, she used her leg to put his mouth back where she wanted it. Jonas’s shoulders shook with laughter.
Hammer showed her what he wanted her to do by using her hair to place her mouth over his cock.
Looking up, she saw his face twisted in agony and desire. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the same expression on Jonas’s face. Suddenly, she got it.
They cared about her. They might have only known each other for a few days, but they had been searching for her for what felt like an eternity. During the lonely years of studying for her degrees, through long hours at work, that she knew would only end in going home to an empty bed, through bouts of sickness when she fervently wished someone cared enough to bring her a bowl of soup….
The bone-deep loneliness that only could be filled by someone loving you.
For her, it wasn’t just one person who would break that loneliness; it was two. They might be a couple consisting of three individuals, but there was only one heart between them all. And it was a heart that was filled with enough love for all three of them. It was a precious gift, and she would be damned if she refused something so special.
She tightened her hand around Hammer’s cock, taking him deeper into her mouth until Jonas turned her around and raised her up on her knees. Continuing back to teasing Hammer’s cock in her new position, she saw him hand Jonas a condom that he had taken out of his shirt pocket.
Hammer grinned at her. “We came prepared.”
Mika held on to Hammer’s cock as Jonas entered her from behind, his moan echoing hers as he surged then retreated, slowly stretching her until he could smoothly move faster and faster.
Jonas made love to her, she made love to Hammer. Each of them shared the pleasure of the other, dragging it on, not wanting it to end, absorbing the sensations and joy until they couldn’t take it anymore. Then the kaleidoscope turned one last time, bringing a burst of colors that were so beautiful that all three of them would remember and celebrate for the days and years to come. It was the day they fell in love.
CHAPTER 12
“It’s just not fair,” Julia complained.
“What isn’t?” Mika asked, stirring a small amount sugar into the pitcher of iced tea she was making.
“Hammer and Jonas.”
“Let me tell you a small secret I learned when I was sixteen years old. Life isn’t fair.”
“No shit. Dillion won’t stop calling, so I blocked him.”
“I’m proud of you. I thought you’d break.”
Looking sheepish, Julia sat down at one the high-back counter chairs as she watched her fill the pitcher with ice cubes. “I probably would have if Hammer and Jonas hadn’t shown up.”
“How did that keep you from taking him back?”
“I figured, if you can find two men like them, then maybe I can at least find one that will treat me better than Dillion.”
“Did you just compliment or insult me?”
“Don’t ask. I’m not in a great mood right now.”
Mika poured her a glass of iced tea, then gave it to her before going to the cabinet to take out four plates.
“You need some help?” Julia offered.
“Nothing else to do. The guys should be back any minute with the pizza.”
Placing the plates down on the counter, she was filling the three remaining glasses when she heard them knocking on the door.
“I’ll grab it. It’s the least I can do,” Julia joked as she made her way to the door.
Mika was taking a sip of her drink when she heard the loud sound of the door being banged open. Dropping the glass, she took off running to the door at the unexpected sound, Julia’s terrified screams spurring her on.
“Stop, Dillion! You’re hurting me!” Julia yelled out, trying to get her ex-boyfriend’s hand out of her hair.
“You fucking slut, you should have answered my calls.”
Mika rushed forward, grabbing Dillion’s shirt and trying to tear him off Julia. “Let her go!” she raged, frightened that, because it was the middle of the day, most of her neighbors would be at work and they’d be hurt long before Jonas and Hammer got home.
A split-second later, she felt Dillion smack her across the face.
Her hand went to the burning pain, but instead of backing off, she started for him again as he hit Julia. Before she could try to tear him of her again, though, he pulled Julia closer to him holding her with one hand around her neck while taking a long knife out of his back pocket with the other.
“Back off, Mika. This is between me and Julia,” he shouted as he pulled Julia farther back into the living room.
Mika started walking backward, not wanting to incite him even more. “Dillion, this isn’t the way you should treat a woman you love,” she said, taking another step in hopes of lessening the energy surging through the room.
“What does it matter what I feel? She doesn’t love me! I’m not stupid, Mika. You take another step toward that cell phone and I’ll hurt her,” he warned, clearly seeing her intent.
Mika nodded, taking a step away from the phone.
“Don’t do this. Just leave while you can. One of the neighbors will have called the police by now.”
Julia’s terror-stricken face tore at her, but Mika remained calm. Jonas and Hammer would be back in a minute. She just had to keep him distracted until then.
Moving to the back of the couch, her thigh touched the side table.
Julia’s cries were starting to get to Dillion, and he started shaking her, his face filled with fury that Julia was still trying to get away.
Mika watched in slow motion as Dillion raised the knife, preparing to strike Julia with it, his eyes focused entirely on her. She used the opportunity she had been waiting and reached for the gun her father had insisted on for her protection. “Look up!” Mika yelled as loudly as she could.
Distracted by Mika’s sudden shout, Dillion looked up. It was his fatal mistake.
A bullet hit right through his throat and out the back of his neck.
Julia’s hysterical screams didn’t abate, even after she lowered the gun. Mika woul
d have run to hold her, but she didn’t think her friend wanted to be touch by her after she just killed her ex-boyfriend.
“Julia, shut up! It’s over. Jonas, call the police,” Hammer shouted over Julia’s screams.
Mika wasn’t aware they had come into the apartment.
“Is he dead?” Julia asked shrilly.
Exasperated, Hammer looked down at the man sprawled on her carpet. “His brain’s all over the place; what do you think?” he snapped.
“Be nice. She’s hysterical,” Mika—ever the pragmatic thinker—scolded him as she sat down on the side table, waiting calmly for the police to arrive.
“The cops are on their way,” Jonas said, grimacing at the mess before turning to look at her. “You keep a gun in a candleholder?”
“It’s not a candleholder.” She bought it an antique store, just for the exact purpose she used it for.
“Why did you keep a loaded firearm in a candleholder?” Hammer asked as he strode to the metal canister to look down inside it.
“There’s not another one inside.”
Hammer cracked a smile at her sarcasm. “How’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“My uncle taught me.”
“He did a hell of a job.”
“I always thought so.”
“Take it from me, he did.” Jonas took Julia’s arm, guiding her to sit on the couch. “Please tell me that gun is licensed.”
“Of course. Why would I have an unlicensed gun in my home?”
“I don’t fucking know. I never expected you to have one in the first place,” he said, placing his arm around her shoulders.
“I don’t know why. I told you I can protect myself.”
“Believe me; we see that now.”
“Mika, is he really dead?”
“Yes, Julia, he’s dead.”
“I should be sorry he’s dead, shouldn’t I?” Anguished, Julia pressed a hand to her mouth.
Jonas left the living room to go into the bedroom, coming back to place a blanket over Julia’s shoulder.
“He was going to stab you when I shot him. So, no, you don’t have to have any sympathy for him.”
“Thank you, Mika.” Julia wiped her tears away. “You saved my life.”
“No, you saved your own life when you decided to leave him. He would have found another reason to go after you that way.”
The rest of the day was spent in a blur. Julia had called another friend to stay with, apologizing that she couldn’t stay with her. Mika understood. Fortunately, Jonas and Hammer had stayed with her throughout the day and the ensuing drama. After all the police questioning and returning back to the apartment, Hammer helped her pack a suitcase for the night, while Jonas found them a hotel room.
“Ready?” Jonas asked as they came out of her bedroom.
“Yes,” Mika answered.
The landlord was still repairing the door for her. As she talked to him, Hammer and Jonas stood to the side, talking. When she finished her conversation, they took the elevator downstairs, leaving the apartment building and scene of the crime.
At the SUV, Hammer held the back door. Climbing inside, she was surprised when both men got in the back, too.
“Is there a problem with the hotel room or something?” she asked.
“I couldn’t find a room. Every room in this city is already booked.”
“So, what are we going to do?”
Hammer reached up and pulled down a DVD screen as Jonas motioned for her to raise up.
“What are you doing?”
A click had the overly large and comfortable seat laying back down into a bed. Both men patted the leather bed. Pulling her shoes off, she crawled in between them.
“This isn’t bad.”
Jonas and Hammer snuggled closer to her as Jonas reached for the remote.
“What’re we watching?” she asked, rubbing her cheek against Jonas’s chest, while Hammer fit his hips snuggly against her bottom.
“Guess.”
When the screen came to life, Mika reached out to take the controller away from him.
“You don’t want to watch it?” he asked.
“Who needs imitations when I can have the real thing?”
Hammer rose up on an elbow to stare down at them. “I think we need to discuss how far California is away Tennessee.”
“I’ve already thought about that.” She slid her hand under Jonas’s shirt. “I emailed my resignation when I came back from Kentucky. I told them I’d be searching for a new job and gave them a month’s notice.
He grinned, laying his hand on hers to hold it still, but it was Hammer who asked the question she could see in Jonas’s eyes.
“Where are you going to be searching for a job?”
“I’ve always wanted to see Tennessee.”
BEFORE
“You really won’t come out with us?”
Mika finally sat up in the hotel bed, wrapping the expensive duvet cover around her so tightly that only her eyes were exposed, making her look like an Eskimo who was about to brave a winter storm. However, the goose down comforter did nothing to combat the chills rippling through her body from the inside out. “If you’re willing to push me and this bed along with you all day, then sure, I’ll come, Adrienne.”
Adrienne came over to her, placing a hand on her forehead, immediately feeling the warmth. “You’re burning up.”
“I told you.” She sniffled.
“Maybe we should stay and watch her?”
Avril came over then, barely placing a hand on her forehead before pulling it away and rolling her eyes. “Oh, please. She’ll be fine.”
Simone, who was posing her model face in the mirror, looked back at them. “We did not lie to our parents and spend hours getting dressed to not leave this hotel room.”
Mika rolled her own eyes now. She really hated being not only the ugly one in the group, considering her friends were successful models, but being the young one at only sixteen. For some reason, being a whole year older made any teenager believe they were a know-it-all over anyone who was even a day younger.
“I really don’t think we should leave h—”
“I said she’ll be fine, Adrienne,” Avril insisted as she grabbed her purse as she headed toward the door.
“Thanks.” Mika smiled at Adrienne, not wanting to ruin her friend’s day. “But I’ll be okay. I’m just going to sleep it off.”
She had spent too many vacations with her group of friends not to be familiar with how the hierarchy worked. Avril was the leader, Simone was next, then Adrienne; she came in last. It had never bothered her, too thrilled at being given the opportunity to be friends with the other girls.
If her father and Adrienne’s father weren’t best friends, she wouldn’t be lying in their hotel room, feeling like she was at death’s door. She was closest to Adrienne, but she had been spending more time with the other two since her father started allowing her to travel to France with Dalton and his family. The three girls gave her a sense of normalcy that had been missing from her life.
Her childhood was unconventional, with her father being the president of the Road Slayers, and her parents finding out they had a child prodigy on their hands. Her father and Adrienne’s met when they had belonged to another motorcycle club. Even when her father had split and formed his own motorcycle club, he remained close friends with Dalton.
She had grown up nonchalant that her “Uncle Dalton” was famous, and then the friends who showed her how to put on her makeup were becoming famous in their own right each with a career in modeling. To her, they were just another branch of her family, not related by blood but just as loved.
“Come on; let’s go. The cab is waiting,” Simone said.
“Call if you get worse.”
She nodded. “I will.”
Watching Adrienne gracefully walk away, it was everything she could do not to tell them to stay with her. Something in her gut nagged at her to open her mouth and try to talk them into doing
just that. In reality, it wouldn’t have been that hard, considering Adrienne could be swayed to stay in an instant. But then the fun would have been knocked out for the other two since, unlike Mika, Adrienne was an integral part of the group. Therefore, she didn’t say anything, always afraid of being the party pooper, considering she was the youngest in the group.
Out of the four of them, it was her dumb luck to be the one to get sick.
“Bye.” Avril blew her a kiss, staying well away from her.
“Bye,” Mika said, blowing her a kiss back then giggling as she sent another one in Simone’s direction.
Her friends gave her horrified looks, rushing out the door as if afraid her airborne kisses were contagious.
Adrienne was the last one to say it before the door closed. “Bye.”
“Bye… Love you,” Mika whispered, regret slowly seeping in that she didn’t at least try to get them to stay even five minutes longer….
AFTER
As she approached the nurses’ station, Julia placed a sheath of daily reports in the basket that would have to be copied and placed in patients’ files.
“I’m glad you listened to my suggestion and came in today. How are you doing?” Mika asked in concern.
“Fine. Thank you. You were right. All day yesterday, I just kept replaying what happened in my mind. Here, I’m too busy to fix myself a cup of coffee, much less wonder about the what ifs.”
“There shouldn’t be any what ifs, unless you’re trying to blame yourself for Dillion’s actions. He brought a knife and broke down a door to get to you, not out of love, but because the only thing on his mind was hurting you. You survived. That’s all that counts, and certainly nothing to feel guilty about.” Mika repeated the last sentence her father and Uncle Dalton had tried to convince her of for years, but it took her repeating the same words to Julia to truly appreciate their truth.
She shrewdly took in her friend’s harried movements as she answered calls from wanting patients. “The patients seem restless this evening.”