Alex Rising

Alex Rising Dita Parker

Lin wasn’t above using extreme measures to ensure she never lost her husband, including a good old-fashioned spell. But the man now standing at her door looks like far more than she’d bargained for. He has the tall-dark-and-handsome thing down pat. What lies beneath the sexy stranger’s cool exterior, Lin can only imagine. Vividly. In New Orleans, a little magic goes a long way. Returning to his hometown and his wife, Tristan has to wonder if this time it didn’t go too far. He has gotten his wish, and now he has to let a man he would never have wanted anywhere near his wife have her in every way imaginable. Alex doesn’t believe in magic. He doesn’t believe in fate or matches made in heaven. But he believes in keeping a promise. Especially one that comes with benefits as seductive and desirable as Lin.

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

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Alex Rising ISBN 9781419922893 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Alex Rising Copyright © 2010 Dita Parker Edited by Jaynie Ritchie Photography and cover art by Les Byerley Electronic book publication March 2010 The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

ALEX RISING

Dita Parker

Dedication To the City That Care Forgot, I salute you, and to J, with love, gratitude and everlasting wonder.

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Prologue “I’ll see you on the other side.” It was the last thing Tristan remembered saying to Alex before the green hell of the jungle turned orange. He hadn’t heard what Alex had tried to shout back, only the explosion around them as the rope bridge he had just stepped on no longer supported him. He had been falling while Alex seemed to be flying, and then Tristan couldn’t see him anymore. Tristan’s last thoughts as he waited for impact had been of Lin. His first thoughts as he’d regained consciousness inside Alex had been “God no” he had died and “Thank God” Alex had lived. Now Alex had to live for both of them, Lin would have to learn to live with them both…and Tristan would have to live with himself for what he had done to all of them in his desperation. He had tempted fate, tried to control his destiny, and had been the epitome of a control freak playing God. It was all out of his hands now, and in the hands of the woman he loved more than life and the man he owed his new life to. “What if she doesn’t let me in?” Alex intercepted Tristan’s thoughts with his own. “She’s expecting us,” Tristan said. “She’s expecting you. It was my voice on the phone but it’s you she imagined. She might take one look at me and decide she can’t do this.” “Just get close enough to touch her and let me take it from there. It will be hard for her, I know, but she’ll come around after I talk to her some more.” Through the damn door if she slammed it in Alex’s face. “Tough love, huh? Can I help you with that by any chance?” Alex asked, obviously interested in the prospect. “Things being as they are, you’ll get to administer all you can possibly lavish on her and then some.” 6

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“Always glad to be of service.” Alex flashed a lecherous smile. “Down, boy, right now. She sees what you’re packing and she’ll plant that deceptively delicate foot of hers where it really hurts. So down with the half-mast, okay?” Damn but Alex was incorrigible. “You noticed, huh?” “It isn’t something I’d miss.” Tristan sighed. Alex didn’t appear rattled as he went on with his light banter. “We have to work on that one. You do understand this gives a whole new meaning to threesomes, don’t you?” He wiggled his brows. Tristan gave an exasperated sigh. “Are you done torturing me with the visuals?” “What are you gonna do? Make me kick my own ass?” Alex chuckled. Tristan wished. “I can try.” “Good luck with that, man, and good luck convincing your broad that having sex with me will be the same as it was with you.” “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Tristan believed he’d had his fill of his friend’s comedy hour. “And she’s not a broad. Never, ever refer to her as one. She’s my wife and you’d better respect that. And her.” “Was,” Alex corrected him. “Was what?” “She was your wife.” Match point. The truth hurt, Tristan admitted, but only to himself. “Yeah. Whatever happens, don’t you forget it.” Alex’s easy repartee gave way to a more somber mood as they parked and walked up to the house. How a man could go from one mood to another in a second and still keep his composure was beyond Tristan. He admired Alex’s flexibility, his capacity to go with the moment in complete abandon then do u-turns if need be. Alex wasn’t fickle, only consistent in his ability to adapt to any situation. He had proven that to Tristan on

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numerous missions. It was Lin’s reaction to the sturdy soldier, who in so many ways was his counterpart rather than his complement, he worried about. “Stop twitching, man. You’re making me nervous and I don’t do nervous,” Alex pushed into his thoughts again. “I need your backup, Tristan, and you need all I can cook up so don’t start going wussy on me.” “I’m not. She’s been through so much already. I don’t want to cause her any more pain.” God, that’s the last thing he wanted and the first thing she was sure to feel. “You won’t. Just remember, it’s not you she sees, so go slow. That’s an order. Ready?” Alex raised his hand to the door. Tristan inhaled deeply. “No.” “Good. Let’s do this.” Alex started knocking.

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Chapter One Lin stared unseeing at the article she had tried to proofread and thought about the day that changed her destiny. The day she had been informed Tristan was missing in action had topped the life-altering-moments list until the day a man had called, introduced himself as Alexander Rifkin—and told her Tristan needed to talk to her. She had listened to the dramatic baritone of a stranger’s voice speaking her husband’s words. Telling her how everything had gone to hell in a handbasket, how there had been a change of plans. He had tried to make light of it, emphasized the spell had worked and he was coming home as promised. Then he had asked if she would like to talk to Alex. She hadn’t. She had not wanted to speak to Alex, she could not imagine Alex. She had heard the name before but knew absolutely nothing about the man. The realization that Tristan now lived inside this stranger had frozen Lin numb. She had been rendered speechless and all the questions concerning Alex, Tristan’s actions and where it left Lin had only started bombarding her after the call. And they hadn’t stopped harassing her since. The men would be at her door any minute now. She had promised they could come, that they would talk. That was all she had promised but she knew Tristan, how determined he could be, how damn stubborn. If he had managed to talk his XO into this, he wouldn’t stop there. He would demand entrance back into their home, into her life—and into their bed. Lin wanted him there. She wanted the future they had envisioned. She wanted Tristan and she had been willing to welcome their friend Danny into their relationship as Tristan’s host if it ever came to that. Danny she would have been able to handle. She

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had known him for years. She could have imagined herself with him in order to be close to Tristan. But this stranger, Alexander… He didn’t know her from Eve and might be coming just to tell her no way in hell was he doing this. She didn’t know him from Adam. So what if she spent some time with him or took one look at him and decided she couldn’t go through with it, even if it meant turning Tristan away as well? She would never survive losing him again. And Tristan wouldn’t give up on them. But her husband was only a spirit now, a voice inside another man. Would hearing the words and maybe even feeling his love but never seeing the man, as she’d thought she would have been able to in Danny, be enough? Placing the paper alongside a heap of others on the coffee table, Lin slowly sat upright on the couch and listened. The sound at her door set a band of wild horses free in her heart. Blood roaring in her ears, Lin waited for confirmation. And sure enough, the rhythm of Iko Iko was drummed on the door again. It wasn’t coming from the neighboring door or her imagination. Their door. Their private, playful signal. Her husband, the man who could carry any tune and make her ticker miss a beat, had arrived. He’s back. Tristan’s back. Lin let out the breath she’d held so long it made her queasy, padded to the door and glanced through the peephole. And retreated as fast as she could. Hercules incarnate was looking straight at the spot monitoring him, smiling openly and not a little wolfishly. Maybe people looked larger than life when seen through a distorting lens, but even a quick peek was enough to convince her he was Herculean indeed. Tall and brawny, dark and beautiful, the stuff of the mythologies she loved to study and teach. But he wasn’t an apparition; he was real and so far removed from her lean, dark blond surfer husband, the illusion of ever seeing Tristan again faded fast. There was such a stark contrast between what she saw in her mind’s eye and what she had seen 10

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through that peephole, the trembling that had almost subsided made a forceful comeback. I will never see his face or hear his voice again. Lin scolded herself for ever thinking otherwise. For going along with Tristan’s plan—their plan—simply because it was possible and the alternative was worse. They had gotten what they wanted. Now a sexy stranger stood behind her door looking like far more than she’d bargained for. “Lin? Open up, honey, it’s okay.” An endearment was the last thing she had expected to hear. It made her belly tingle. Lin took another look at the supreme hunk asking to be let in. His sultry voice tensed her every muscle. “I know you’re in there. Please, chérie, open up.” Oh she would have loved to. She wanted to open the door and have a closer look at him. Feast her famished eyes on his powerful form and wallow in his dramatic baritone. He sounded like balm for the soul but looked like deadly danger, and after all her heart had been dragged through during the longest weeks of her life, Lin was utterly confounded. She longed to open up. She had promised she would. Open that door and welcome back the man with the green eyes and sun-kissed hair. That was the man she had been expecting in her dreams. Now a dreamboat of equal appeal but sailing under very different colors stood only inches away. Tristan’s never coming back. Not seeing a way out or around whatever would follow, Lin took a deep breath and opened the door. Lin gave the man her first good once-over. He was several inches taller than her sixfoot husband had been, with a bulkier build. He was dressed to kill in a midnight-blue shirt, fashionably frayed off-black jeans and urban-chic oxfords, while his boyish smile decorated a face in no need of further embellishment. The man had an enviable mane of black hair and expressive brown eyes, the relaxed posture of an athlete and the intensity of a cat on the prowl, a contrast he seemed to feel right at home with but one that made 11

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her wary. And the voracious way he kept staring at her gave Lin the sensation she was about to be jumped. He made no move to try to enter, he didn’t say a word, only raised his hand to offer her a rose. Lin cupped the base of the bud and lifted the stem from his hand—and saw the beaded charm bracelet. The one given to Tristan by her grand-mère Marguerite, the one they had given to Danny. Tiger’s-eyes alternating with jasper stones, meant to heal and protect and bring balance and clarity to the two men if they ever had to share one body and mind. Swallowing tightly, Lin tore her eyes from the thick wrist and the bracelet wrapped around it and focused on the single white rose. She marveled at its pure perfection. It reminded her of her wedding bouquet, of legends of the original rose being white. She recognized the symbolism of a new beginning, of innocence and honor, a color that in earlier days symbolized a true and eternal love. To Tristan, the flower might have been an embodiment of promises made. To Alexander, a rose was probably just a rose. Disgusted at her desperate reaching, Lin placed the flower on the Chinese cabinet by the door and stepped back. “Please, come in.”

“Tone down the predatory smile and stance, Alex,” Tristan grated. “That’s not me, man. It’s you smirking at her. I can’t help it if it’s the sexy beast in me she sees.” He stepped inside and let Lin close the door behind them. Despite all his plans and promises to himself, Tristan felt like taking hold of her and never letting go. She looked distressed but he knew of no better way to tackle the situation than continuing head-on with their reunion. He had waited enough, given Alex time to heal his body and begin to heal his mind. Not knowing what to expect, Lin’s wait must have felt even longer. Tristan had been surprised his inquisitive little Cajun hadn’t given Alex the third degree over the phone. He had decided not to push it, or her. If she had started coming up with excuses 12

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and reasons not to let them come and not to meet Alex despite what they had agreed, Tristan might have died a second death. If she had been antagonistic and evasive enough to make Alex reluctant to at least meet and greet her, Tristan would most certainly have died again. He had decided pure and unadulterated first impressions might not be a bad way for Lin and Alex to get acquainted. Not that bad at all. Alex was effortless. He smiled, they swooned. As much as it killed him, for once in his life Tristan wished his wife would not be immune to the charm of another man. Now if he could only imagine Lin wanting Alex, wanting to get close to him, the intimacy it would lead to… He would not only have to imagine it, he would have to encourage it. Get over whatever jealousy it would have sparked in the past, the same rage he could now feel rising in him as he thought of his wife in the arms of another man. That’s where he would have to usher her if he wanted to be with Lin. His brave Lin inspected them in silence. She was as beautiful and magnificent as ever, her dark, tousled hair falling around her flushed face and down her shoulders, eyes blazing like a St. Elmo’s fire on green leaves, her tanned skin in white linen. Her eyes and face were wrought with myriad conflicting emotions she either wouldn’t or couldn’t hide. No pictures he had carried with him came close to capturing how startling she was in the flesh. No phone call matched hearing her husky voice live. “The photographs don’t do her justice.” Alex interrupted his thoughts.

What Alex saw was an easy sexiness he hadn’t had the pleasure of admiring in a long time. He wasn’t merely admiring the view, he was outright staring and that made him smile. No picture Tristan had shown of her came close to capturing how lovely she was in the flesh. She had the unassuming grace and natural beauty of a woman who would blend in most crowds yet would universally be thought of as beautiful. In his eyes, she stood 13

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out. Set against the array of exotic colors filling her apartment, she looked like some rare orchid in her crisp, white wrap dress—unique, fragile, untouchable. He wanted to touch her though, see if she’d feel as soft and warm and enticingly feminine as she looked. Considering the midsummer heat, her dress covered far more than it revealed. What it couldn’t hide was her slender yet womanly shape accented by a warm tan. An unimaginative man might have called her pretty and sensuous. Alex thought she was absolutely riveting. That made him uneasy and a little unsure and that was a first for him. Much to his relief, he’d learned Tristan wasn’t able to influence his thoughts or affect his feelings. But what else could be triggering the mayhem Lin was causing in him other than Tristan’s emotional overload? Giving in to the urge, Alex brushed his fingers against Lin’s hand in a gentle caress—and both hands drew back as if they had touched a live wire.

Awareness like an electric current flowing between them made Tristan flinch. It hadn’t been him. Alex had touched her. It was Alex she had responded to, which bothered Tristan. Way past the point of no return, with no time to dwell on what had just happened, Tristan ran with it. “Honey, it’s okay. Let him touch you. It’s me. Let me hold you, please.” Tristan hated the fraught edge in his voice. His need to comfort her, to hold her at long last was making him desperate when what he needed most was to keep his cool. “Don’t,” he heard Alex warn. “Don’t rush her. It’s me she sees. No matter what you say, it’s my voice she hears.” “She knows it’s me. It’s been so long, but she knows it’s me. I’ve waited too long…” “Tristan, don’t. You’ll scare her. That’s the last thing that’ll work for you. Fuck. Fuck!” “Oh I’d love to. And soon,” Tristan hissed.

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“Pardon?” Lin asked. “I said actions speak louder than words.” That had her frowning fiercely. Sensing Alex rising, Tristan tried to hold him back. “Trust me on this one, will you?” “I don’t force myself on women and I won’t let you either. I don’t care how many years you’ve been married, the second I sense any struggle I will make you let go.” “It’ll be okay. Once I hold her, she’ll be okay.” “Better start working your magic on her then.”

Lin started backing into the living room as six feet and several inches of manly perfection moved toward her. He looked as if he weighed at least two hundred and twenty pounds. Solid, beautifully proportioned, powerful pounds. Under different circumstances she would have loved to inspect him closer. The way he kept looking at her with such longing and ravenous hunger, he obviously shared the sentiment. He raised his hands to his front, palms toward her, his caring eyes never leaving hers. And when he reached her, he carefully but swiftly trapped her in his arms. “Everything’s okay, chérie.” Lin let her eyes wander from his strong neck to his chiseled chin to his mouth. His lips were slightly parted, his breathing steady. She continued her climb past his straight but strong nose. She sensed a possibly violent undercurrent in him, a force and combative strength she had no doubt he knew how to use to his advantage but there was no menace in his eyes once she dared to look all the way up and into them. They were the color of some sinful, delicious dark chocolate, a perfect match to his silky baritone, with slivers of gold and olive green sprinkled within that gave them a feline glow. His brows were almost straight, dark slashes. And the fringe of his thick lashes… Oh, she knew women who would have done bodily harm for lashes like that.

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Up close she could see his hair wasn’t pitch black but a very dark shade of brown. The few faded scars around his brow and cheeks did nothing to diminish the fact that he was a devastatingly attractive, even beautiful man. Not in the pretty sense of the word but rather heavily on the masculine and feral. There was a word or phrase for what held her all but spellbound, Lin was sure. Animal magnetism?

Tristan watched his wife studying Alex. Lin was in the habit of complimenting men and women alike, both to him in passing and to people face-to-face. Tristan wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what his wife thought while looking at Alex. And the ladies did look at Alex, then looked again. If Lin liked what she saw, for once she wasn’t telling. And for now he wasn’t asking, only seething in silence, hoping against every husbandly instinct that Alex struck her as irresistible. “This is good, honey. This is way better. I’ve missed you, Lin. I’ve missed you so much…” Trying to forget about Alex and focus solely on her, love and longing welling inside him and about to burst free or drown him, Tristan took her mouth and prayed she would let him. Gone was the calm and control he had only barely managed to maintain. He couldn’t help it. It had been too long, and knowing he would never truly be with her, not like in the future he had envisioned for them, only made his hunger worse. Would it always be like this for him? An insatiable yearning to have her, never completely fulfilled? This was as close and as good as it would get. But would it be enough? Would claiming her through Alex ever set him free? Tristan hoped he wasn’t hurting her with his iron embrace but he couldn’t loosen his hold. Not now when he finally held her, when they finally touched, when he was finally claiming her mouth. If he had his way, it would be a matter of days before he was back inside her body as well, giving her all the pleasure he had stored for her,

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taking all she was willing to give him. Hell, he wouldn’t last for days, not even one, not even for a minute with how hard he was already—with her at last. Lin didn’t respond to his kiss. He let her mouth go and eased back only a fraction to see her face. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking or feeling, not with her refusal to look at him and her frame so rigid. Maybe she sensed he wanted more than a kiss and he wanted it the day before yesterday. Maybe it was the erection pressing into her belly that made her wary. But did it make her wet? If she was thinking about what he wanted from her, was she thinking about who would actually be doing it to her? Alex fucking Lin. His Lin. Oh god. How the hell would he survive that? No matter how much he wanted her, even if the three of them knew he was in command, how the hell would he be able to let his XO make love to his wife? Soldier on, soldier boy. “Look at me, chérie. It’s okay. He’s bigger than I was, I know, in…every way, but he won’t force himself on you. I won’t force myself on you. But I do need to hold you.” Tristan loosened his hold another notch, keeping one arm encircled around her while the other traveled up her arm and stopped to cradle her face. His thumb drew small circles on her cheek and then made its way toward her mouth. She pursed her lips only to have him massage them gently until she caved in and relaxed her jaw once again. He made an appreciative sound and wished she would look at him, voluntarily. She didn’t. He was encouraged by the fact that she still hadn’t tried to pry herself loose but he didn’t know what to make of her silent nonresistance. Tristan moved his hand to take hold of the back of her head and gathered her to him. He pressed the whisper of a kiss on her lips then another on the corner of her mouth. He trailed his way to her ear and ended up kissing her more forcibly below her earlobe. He could feel her heart racing in the pulse against his lips. His brave and beautiful Madeleine.

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Barely able to control the tremor in his voice, he rasped in her ear, “I love you, Lin. Always have, always will.” He thought he felt her relax the hint of a breath, her pulse and breathing suddenly calmer. “I missed your face, your voice…your body. I’ve missed your touch, honey. And I’ve missed touching you.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her temple and started lightly massaging the back of her head. “Do you still like this? You used to love me rubbing you… All over.” She stiffened once again and Tristan mentally kicked himself for the thoughtless innuendo but he was having a hard time controlling his yearning. He was trying to express the spiritual and emotional side of it when what he really wanted was to make a beeline for the bedroom, rip off her dress and bury his cock as deep inside her pussy as he possibly could. Maybe after an hour or a day or two of unadulterated, headboardbanging sex, he might get back to expressing his love and not simply thinking of sweet loving. Trying to keep a lid on all that burned and brewed within, Tristan kept massaging her head. “Just my hands, Lin. Nothing but my hands. I won’t do anything against your will.”

But he was doing something to her all right, Lin thought as his hand slowly turned her into a rag doll in his arms. Yes, she had always loved Tristan’s caresses. The way he touched her now felt as heavenly, as safe and loving as always. Except the hands on her, around her, all over her, belonged to someone else. She had been stricken motionless when he’d taken hold of her. He had evoked what she had felt only in her husband’s arms, things she had never felt in the presence of other men, feelings that a complete stranger could not possibly awaken in her so fiercely, so fast. But it wasn’t Alex who held her, Lin had to remind herself, it was Tristan. Tristan’s words and love, his hands and moves channeled through the stranger who reeked of testosterone and called to her as loudly as her husband did. 18

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And you thought him good-looking, even sexy, when you first laid eyes on him, didn’t you, you shameless hoochie? She was hungry for affection and intimacy, sex starved. No wonder she didn’t know what to think, crushed against a hunk supreme confessing her husband’s undying love. It was a potent mixture and Lin was getting heady with it. She had to muster all her courage to look at him once more. What she saw disconcerted her all over again in a wonderfully soothing and delicious way. He did look slightly alarmed after hinting at touching her more intimately. But he also looked concerned and tender. All that lethal strength wrapped in cool and calm control was one of the things she loved and admired most about Tristan. His hand stopped and made its sweet, slow way back to her face.

Tristan wanted to believe the small sound she made as his caress ended was one of disappointment. If she had longed for his touch, it had to be. Please let it be. She stared at him without blinking or seemingly moving, but he could swear her stance was relaxing by the second. He dropped his eyes to her beautiful mouth. Her lips were slightly parted and he instantly thought of where he wanted to feel that mouth, where he wanted to plant his. In a futile attempt to stop that particular train of thought, he closed his eyes, only to imagine Alex parting her pussy lips with his tongue then thrusting it as far as he could inside her slick, silky folds. Lin writhing in pleasure as she begged him to give her more, for Alex to stop teasing and fuck her. Alex pinning her down with his arms on her thighs, his fingers spreading her pussy then sucking at her clit. Lin coming all over his mouth, shouting in ecstasy. That’s what it came down to. That’s where it would lead. And that would surely spell his end. It was his turn to stiffen all over but she didn’t look alarmed, she didn’t shrink in his arms. She just kept looking at him with an expression he couldn’t decipher for certain. 19

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“Honey, are you all right?” “Yes. No. I don’t know!” She tried to step away from him. “That’s your cue, Tristan. Back off.” “As soon as you do. I let go five seconds ago. What the hell, Alex?”

His hold on her loosened and Lin stepped back. He now definitely looked worried. “Lin? What’s wrong?” What was wrong was that he was foreign yet familiar and it did strange things to her composure. It made her head swim and knees weaken and that wasn’t her. That had never been her. But neither had she ever been this dazed or confused. “I think I need to sit down.” He closed the distance again, scooped her in his arms as if she weighed no more than a twig and set off for the couch. “Let me down! You can’t carry me. I weigh a ton and a half.” “In a minute, honey. And by the way, no you don’t. You’ve lost weight and I don’t think I like it. You need more flesh on those delicious curves of yours but you should bounce back to normal once I start cooking for you again. I’ve missed feeding you. And I’ve missed eating you…” She gasped at his words and at the instant memories of the mind-numbing pleasure Tristan had given her in the past. She loved oral sex, and he’d loved eating her pussy. And she knew Alexander couldn’t possibly miss the bright red heat of embarrassment climbing up her neck and to her face. He put her down gently, smiling knowingly and oh so seductively. The sexy, lopsided grin of a handsome stranger coupled with the teasing words of a man she knew so well made Lin wrap her arms around her body as tightly as she could, but to no avail. She was in knots such as she’d never known before and the man at her feet seemed to be the problem and the solution all in one. Make that two in one.

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“How did you talk him into this, Tristan? You said you had no choice. You certainly didn’t give me one. How the hell did you get him to agree? Maybe Alexander could enlighten me on that one.” “Please, call me Alex. Alexander is what my sister calls me when she’s pissed at me.” Lin realized Tristan had been in command from the moment they had walked in. He hadn’t even bothered to introduce Alex properly. Well, she wanted to speak to Alex now. “Did you know about the deal between Tristan and Danny?” she asked. “No I didn’t. Not until…” “Until what?” she pressed. “The day Danny died and Tristan came to you with what sounded like a pretty fantastic piece of fiction? ‘If anything should happen to me too, could I please hitch a ride with you instead of taking the hearse as I’m supposed to? Made a promise to the missus and she’s expecting either me or Danny, but you’ll do.’ And you said yes? You took the bracelet, let him put the spell on you and went along with it?” “Of course I did. I didn’t believe a word of it.”

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Chapter Two “Tristan, what have you done?” Of course. Of course Alex hadn’t given Tristan his consent. It had grown into the biggest question mark she’d agonized over since Tristan had called and now she had her answer. Alex had been given as much of a choice in the matter as she had. None. “Oh god. What have you done?” “Everything I had to do to get back to you, chérie. That was the deal.” “No. He wasn’t part of the deal when we made that pact. He has no part in this!” “He has now.” “How could you?” A shell-shocked expression settled on her delicate features. “I can’t do this. You can’t make him. Oh god, Tristan. What were you thinking?” “You. I was thinking of you, Lin.”

“Ease up, man,” Alex warned. It was Tristan’s second strike and he didn’t want to call a third. “You’re laying it all on her like it’s her fault. It’s not. She’s innocent.” Alex fought the almost overwhelming urge to rise against Tristan, to touch her hand again, to take it in his and try to soothe her. His hands curled to fists as he steeled himself to hold back. “Tristan came up to me after we’d lost Danny. I took one look at him and thought we might lose him next. I had never seen him like that. We’re inside a shitstorm and one of my men starts acting weird and talking crazy. I thought it was combat stress. I had to make him calm down and snap out of it so I went along with it. I didn’t understand half of what he was saying and pretty much disregarded the rest. We had a job to do and I needed him with me.”

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“But he didn’t snap out of it. He wasn’t concentrating.” Her voice was weak, pensive. “He wasn’t. Tripwire. He didn’t check. Like he suddenly didn’t know what he was doing, he stepped on a bridge we had to cross and it blew. The blast threw me the other way. Next thing I knew, I was having conversations with him in my head.” “I’m so sorry, Alex. I’m so sorry.” God, the pain in her eyes and voice. So much pain and regret for something she hadn’t done, it made his chest ache. “It’s not your fault. It was his decision. And mine. I decided not to believe and here we are. I don’t blame you, Lin. I blame him.” Alex blamed Tristan but he understood him too. He could even understand Danny’s motivation. Loved ones and the promise of a future with them didn’t mesh well with a job fraught with danger. But his men dealt with it, learned to live with it, or they didn’t dream of things like being married with children. Alex didn’t sleep to dream. That’s why he was where he was at thirty-five. At the top of his game. That’s where he had wanted to be, where he thought he belonged. Focused on the mission at hand, not on what or who was waiting for him back home. Tristan obviously hadn’t been able to reconcile it. He had wanted to have his cake and eat it too. As unbelievable as it was, he had found a way to keep Lin even in death, and he had found a willing stand-in to help him do it. Tristan and Danny had been as close as brothers, as close as Alex was with his twin sister. It figured they would love the same woman. Danny had tried to hide it. He had managed to for a while. But with time, the more Tristan talked about Lin, the less Danny commented until it seemed he wanted to be nowhere near when the subject of wives and girlfriends was brought up. Alex knew a self-defense move when he saw one. Danny must have felt like a lucky bastard when Tristan had approached him and offered him the possibility of being with Lin. But luck hadn’t been on their side the day both men had died. And Alex didn’t think Tristan had been thinking of Lin. He had 23

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only been thinking of himself. He had won the wager and now Alex and Lin would pay the cost. Letting Lin settle, Alex looked at the photographs sitting in their colorful frames on a dark wooden drawer by the wall. He zeroed in on one of Lin sandwiched between Tristan and Danny, Lin facing Tristan and holding on to him, Danny glued to her back and holding on to them both. “The two of you look so much alike you could have been brothers. Is that why you chose him? To make it easier on yourself and Lin? I know you didn’t even have to twist his arm. It was the worst-kept secret in the team that he lusted after her, you know.” “Alex…” “Yes, Tristan?” No time like the present to let the cat out of the bag, Alex decided, even if he had to drag it out by the tail. “If we’re going to do this, let’s at least be honest about things. She might not have known, but you guys did a terrible job pretending you didn’t notice Danny had a hardon for her. Remember that topless picture of Lin sunbathing?” “Tristan!” Lin gasped. “Oh don’t worry, sweetie. He never meant to show it to anyone, but he kind of misplaced it. I found Danny jacking off with it.” “Oh god.” Her hands flew to her ears. “It’s okay. It’s in a safe place. In fact, you can have it back now.” He dug out his wallet and took out his favorite pinup to date. “Alex!” “Yeah yeah yeah, I’ve had it all this time. I threatened to tell you if he didn’t let me confiscate it. It was wrong of him to take it in the first place.” “It was even worse of you to keep it.” Murder and mayhem sounded out in Tristan’s words. “It’s a very nice picture.”

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Lin took the picture he now offered and slapped it facedown on the coffee table without even stealing a glance. She remembered the day it had been taken. It had been their first trip abroad together and the first time they’d had sex outdoors. The bungalow had been secluded and they had taken full advantage of its private location. She had been sunbathing topless when Tristan had turned the camera on her and asked her to strike her best pinup pose. She had done his bidding, he had taken the picture, put the camera away then asked if she’d like to take the bikini bottom off too. She had dared him to do it himself. He had sat at the edge of the lounger and put his hand on the tiny triangle of fabric. He had massaged her mound lightly then asked her to open her legs a little wider. She had been wet and ready for him as he’d slipped his hand between bare skin and thin cloth and gone for her clit and slit with added pressure. She had tried to breathe evenly. She had meant to tease him until he dragged her indoors and took her. It had been Tristan doing all the teasing instead with his fingers on her pussy, rubbing her until she’d writhed. “Are you sure you don’t want to take these off?” he’d asked. “Uh-huh,” had been her breathless answer, her eyes closed tight in pleasure beneath her sunglasses. Tristan had pushed a finger inside her, slow and sensuous, monitoring every breath she’d drawn. He had pulled out languidly to add another finger. He’d started driving into her pussy in long, steady strokes, gliding in the moisture that betrayed how damn hot he made her. And she’d ridden his fingers. She had countered his thrusts and fucked him back. “They’re staying on then?” he’d asked silkily before he’d begun working harder inside her creaming cunt. “Yes,” was all she remembered wheezing. “Keep them on then.” His voice had turned husky, the silky tone gone. So were his fingers as the sun suddenly clouded. Tristan had climbed onto the sunbed with her, 25

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taken her under him and pushed the thong bikini aside. If she had thought his fingers had felt fine teasing her pussy, his cock pushing into her next had been absolutely fantastic. He had fucked her wildly, driving pleasure into her as he drew cries out of her until she was coming hard and shouting even harder. She had forgotten to care they were outside. Nothing but the blue skies and the ocean to watch them, no one but Tristan to hear her, and before the trip was over she had willingly taken those bikinis or her dress off for him many more times under the sun and the moon. “We had fun, didn’t we?” Tristan’s question drew her back to reality. Lin assumed it was his question. Who else’s? It was the oddest of things listening to them talking to her in one voice, but Lin realized it wasn’t confusing. Tristan had never completely lost his Southern accent. Alex didn’t seem to have one, none she could pin down for certain, and she had an ear for such things. “How are we gonna do this?” she asked. “One day at a time,” Alex said. “I mean can I talk to you separately, in private?” “No. Both will hear what you or others say no matter who’s in command. It’s a threesome, Lin, except in ours you get two men in one.” “A ménage.” That’s what he made it sound like even if he wasn’t thinking about sex. The way Alex had pronounced the word “threesome” sent an absolutely corrupt shiver down her spine. And he kept teasing her senses with his downy voice. “Well it is, isn’t it? You knew that’s what it would boil down to. It’s my body so of course I’ll be there every step of the way even when Tristan’s in command.” Tristan had been a gentle and attentive lover. Would Alex be like him or much harder and demanding in his tastes? Because he has that tall, dark and handsome thing going, is that it? Because he’s bigger, harder, you think he would fuck you harder and deeper too? But it’s not Alex who has the hots for you, you shameless hoochicoo, it’s Tristan who will be doing the loving. 26

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She could not stop the wayward train of thought from rolling on. The one where she imagined Alex naked in that sun lounger with her, his devastating body kneeling in front of her spread thighs, his cock pulsing with the need to enter her. Lin’s belly cramped. She had felt Tristan’s erection pressing against her as he’d held her, but it was Alex’s cock he had been in command of. Lin now imagined those impressive inches pressing against her entrance as he pushed the bikini thong aside and opened her up with his large hands, his thumbs spreading her bare flesh for him. He would work slowly into her, burying inch after inch into her wetness, withdrawing to her opening to let her watch him taking her, to watch himself fucking her. Lin imagined his large frame caging hers as he settled closer to her, how she’d circle his hips with her legs, giving him deeper access, opening for him as he started pumping into her, slow and easy at first. But she didn’t want slow and easy. She needed fast and furious and that’s what he would have her begging for as he took her under the sun, as Tristan had on that beautiful day. Tristan… Not Alex, Tristan. “How do you do it?” she gasped. “Do what? Talk to each other?” “Yeah.” Whatever took the focus off Alex’s damn fine body and her fantasies about it. A long dry spell without sex and intimacy was known to do strange things to a woman. And now her husband had brought a stranger into their home with the intention of getting them all into bed together. If that wasn’t a ménage— “Yeah. How do you do it?” Lin asked, bulldozing all other thoughts aside. “We’re still working on it. Who takes command and when, how we communicate, how to completely shut the other out if and when we want to. I don’t think we can do that though. We can’t hear each other think but we can address the other whenever we want, so no, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to completely ignore each other. I can’t stop

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Alex from rising if I’m in command and he hasn’t stopped me from surfacing yet if I’ve wanted to have a word with him.” “And you feel everything the other one does, physically?” “Every sensation, with all our senses. That means every touch, every smell, sight and sound. When I held you, he was holding you too. And I felt him touch your hand after you let us in.” Lin’s eyes shot to him. “I didn’t touch you. Alex did. Shocked?” “No, I… I don’t know. I don’t know what I should be thinking or feeling. Does he? Do you, Alex?”

“One day and step at a time, Lin. That’s all I know. That’s the only way we can do this.” That’s how Alex had decided to proceed with her. That was all he had been able to promise Tristan. That they would see how it went, how Lin would react and Alex would feel and take it from there. “You know as well as I do where Tristan wants those steps to lead. Sooner rather than later.” “And with Danny you could’ve? Gone to bed with him and imagined Tristan?” “I knew Danny.” Tristan told him that’s what had cemented the deal. Alex didn’t believe for a minute it would have been easier for Tristan to let Danny fuck his wife, no matter what the man said. Had Lin been titillated by the thought of having another man in their bed to pleasure her, together with her husband? “But you never slept with him, did you? How do you know you could’ve let him touch you when Tristan wanted to have sex? That when you got all hot and bothered, you could have gone to him as you would have gone to Tristan?” “It would have been Tristan in command.”

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“With Danny fucking you along with him. Feeling every inch of your body, you feeling every inch of his. Would you have gone down on him or let him pleasure you with your eyes open or closed?” In Alex’s fantasies, Lin’s eyes had been wide open, intent on everything he did to her. She turned to look away, nestling deeper into the couch. “I knew Danny!” “Alex! What the hell happened to ‘one step at a time’?” “She asked me if I understand where this is headed. I just want to make sure she does too.” “You’re going to get to know me now, and I’m going to get to know you, Lin. Exactly how close we end up being is all up to you and me, isn’t it, angel, and Tristan will just have to wait and see how it goes, won’t he?” “The hell I will, Alex. Walk away now and I swear—” “You’ll do what? You haven’t done enough? Shot a hole through her by going missing then dropping a bomb by coming home with me? At least let her believe she has a say in this. She needs time to adjust.” “And I need her, dammit.” “So go to her, but have some patience, will you? Think of her for a change, not about what your dick wants.” Easier said than done, Alex conceded. Lin had half-turned away from him and was staring at the same picture Alex had a moment ago, of the love and lust triangle that had been recast. He would now have to stand in for Danny, and he would have to stand in for Tristan too. Alex understood her uneasiness, he truly did. She didn’t know him but she knew very well what Tristan wanted from them, expected of them sooner rather than later, as she’d put it. Her husband wanted her as much as always, even worse now that they had been apart for a while, and only waited for a chance, some sign that she welcomed his touch. Their touch. He was asking for it now as he took her hand between his palms. She pulled it back, her eyes widening then her expression turning into a frown.

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“I see you. I see both of you.” The forest green of Tristan’s eyes swam in Alex’s gaze but didn’t mingle with the brown. The colors glided from one hue to the other and back, and it was the most mesmerizing, striking thing Lin had ever seen. “What do you see, chérie?” “I see you, baby. In his eyes. I see you too.” “I’m glad you do.” He lowered his voice. “It must be my need bleeding through.” Lin stared at Tristan staring back at her in the face of another man. A stranger whose arms had held her, whose hands had soothed her as easily as Tristan’s always had. A man who had made her feel as if only for an instant she was in her husband’s arms again, that everything would be all right and somehow back to normal. Lin couldn’t hold on to it. The illusion his eyes had created faded as reality settled back in. The knowledge that Tristan would in time be declared dead. To the rest of the world he would die and she would become his widow. And the man who now hosted her husband’s spirit owed them nothing. “Lin? Chérie, what’s wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong as long as I don’t concentrate on the fact that Mr. Rifkin, here, has a home somewhere, plans to see through and a future that has absolutely nothing to do with you and me and whatever we talked about with Danny,” Lin said. “Call me Alex, will you? I also have a bracelet that says otherwise and a voice in my head that says a whole lot more,” Alex tried to cut in. “Want to hear something else?” A simultaneous “No!” rang out, Lin’s and Tristan’s, but it did nothing to deter the man who now took hold of her hands and wouldn’t let her pry them free. The warmth and strength of him took all the fight out of her. “Good. Now listen up. One. There’s no such place as home. I’ve moved around since I gave up pacifiers. Never had a problem relocating. Two. No, my plans had nothing to do with you but in no way will any of this affect them either. In fact, Tristan can help me. Consult, advise, be a wingman, whatever keeps his mind busy and off my

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case. Three. One of my men has asked me if I would like to date his beautiful wife. I’ll get to go as far with her as she is willing to take it, with his consent. So this isn’t what you had planned. And a ménage has never been a particular fantasy of mine but all things considered, yeah, it is a sweet deal.” He ran his thumbs over her knuckles in a tender caress, a small smile tugging at the corners of his fine mouth. How could he be so calm when on the inside she was torn? “You talk about it like it’s nothing. Like it’s easy. Like there’s nothing else to it than just going along with this.” “Do I have a choice? You know of a way to shut him up and make me forget he’s there? Sweetie, Tristan told me he chose me ’cause I’m a survivor and I intend to live through this the only way I know how. Adapting. It isn’t always easy but it’s the only way to fly. It’s all I know.” Lin stared into his eyes—now more brown than green. He was trying to comfort her. She hadn’t died. She still had her life and her future in her hands while he had been robbed of his and there he sat, looking at her as if he thought she might break if he didn’t console her. “I’m sorry, Alex. I’m so sorry.” The sting of tears pricked her eyes and Lin fought the awful sensation of being strangled. “You can stop apologizing for him, Lin. I mean it. Don’t cry, angel. Come here.” He gathered her closer then simply picked her up to cradle on his lap. She let him. “That’s hitting men below the belt, you know. It makes us defenseless and men hate that. Men hate showing how much power you wield over us. But I’m man enough to admit that you do.” “You’re an arrogant ass, that’s what you are,” Tristan huffed. “Tristan begs to differ. Thanks for the vote of confidence, man. Here I thought I was acing being a man for the both of us.”

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And he was, Lin mused. Alex was acting man enough for the two of them. He looked strong in body and sounded amazingly secure in mind. He would have to be to have risen in the ranks and become one who led, not followed. He projected calm and cool calculation. In a world gone mad and in a life as derailed as hers, his strength and resolve gave her solace and shelter. She wanted to believe it would be all right. She had wanted her husband back and she had gotten him. Lin wasn’t sure she could be stoic as Alex. Resting her head against his heart, she let the tears dry and her feelings subside. She could do worse than follow his example and advice, jump off the emotional rollercoaster and take it easy. But she knew Tristan, and if their time apart had been a long wait for her, it had been double for her husband. They had rarely been separated for as long as they had by now. The way he had stepped into their home, taken hold of her and kissed her as if Alex wasn’t there didn’t speak of calm, patience or the need to go slow. She was back in his embrace and she knew he wanted more. And Alex had said that it was up to her to show and tell them what and when. Just in time for bedtime. In fact, it was way past her usual bedtime and not your usual visiting hour. But knowing her husband, he wasn’t visiting. He planned on staying. “Why the late hour, Tristan?” Lin asked. “Why not this afternoon or tomorrow morning? Planning on sleeping over?” She slipped out of his lap and sat beside him. He let go of her. He might have cringed as if forcing himself, but he let go. “I came as fast as I could. Or Alex could afford to. And he has to take off within the week to take care of business for a few days. But every second in between, I insisted we spend with you. So yes, I was kind of hoping we’d get to sleep over. The dog house will do nicely, thank you.” “The dog house? Pay him no mind, Alex. It’s a very comfy couch. I bet you can almost stretch out on it. I’m sorry we don’t have a guest room. Just my library-slashoffice with a recliner I don’t think you’d even squeeze into.”

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“Lin, it’s fine, truly.” Alex’s concern would have bothered Lin had it not touched her more. He was being sexy and adorable at the same time, and that was hitting women below the belt. At least, it was working on her because she found herself giving in. “I hope you brought a change of clothes since most of Tristan’s won’t fit you either. Everything else you might need you’ll find in the separate toilet.” “You moved my things out of the bedroom bath?” She had, but she hoped Tristan wouldn’t read too much into it. “For his sake, baby. Not because of you. We don’t want to make our guest uncomfortable, do we?” “Honey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen our guest uncomfortable. Thanks, Lin, I’ll be fine.” She watched him move to the door and for a fleeting second the fear that he was going to walk out gripped her. Instead, he went for a black leather duffel bag by the Chinese cabinet. She must have missed it when the hulky hunk had stepped inside. Lin’s mind had definitely been on the details concerning him and not his accessories as she’d welcomed him in, and she couldn’t help watching and admiring the way he moved even now. How the muscles of his back and thighs flexed beneath his clinging shirt and jeans, his movements lithe despite the power his limbs packed. Whatever his injuries had been, they didn’t show. For a man his size, the grace and economy of movement were quite a sight. He was certainly easy on the eyes. Tristan had been too but in a different way and it made it hard for her to imagine him inside Alex. A stranger, the equivalent of some foreign land with a language she might not understand at first. With ways and manners she would have to get accustomed to if she wanted to survive; with whom she would have to share and learn if she wanted to move on and get along. Just her kind of adventure. “Chérie?” Alex now stood before her, Tristan calling to her. “You don’t want to talk about this? You must have a million questions.”

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She did. She also needed a breather to sort them out, along with her feelings. “This won’t change much between tonight and tomorrow morning, will it? To tell you the truth, I haven’t been sleeping well since you called. Now that you’re here, I hope I finally will. I think I’ll function better and think clearer tomorrow. Alex?” “God, don’t ask him. I know he’s ready to crash. He gets up with the birds.” “And that’s why I’m always a step ahead,” Alex said. “He means that’s why he’s the man. Or he thinks he is.” She could only imagine it. If Tristan had been a take-charge type of guy, he had evidently met his match in Alex. The past weeks must have been the weirdest of oneman reality shows on steroids for the two men. Two distinct males, two strong characters fighting for control. One she knew, one she knew nothing about. And I’m only one woman. If only Tristan had lived, she wouldn’t be standing before a beautiful stranger thinking sin. If Danny had lived, would she have even thought it sin to want to take his hand and tell him he didn’t have to sleep on the couch? She had known Danny. Tristan had known him, suggested him. Walked him and talked him through every possible angle. She could have taken Danny’s hand and known Tristan held it too. She could have taken him into their bed and known Tristan was with them every step of the way. Made love to him and seen her husband in her lover’s eyes, eyes so alike, the same dark blond hair, the handsome face, the build and the Southern drawl… But with this man, this seductive stranger, she couldn’t see the picture as clearly. She couldn’t imagine Tristan vividly while thoughts of herself and Alex teased at the darkest edges of her mind; corners that whispered she much preferred this new addition to Danny. A naughty nook her husband had gladly tapped into to fulfill her sexual fantasies. Into those sexy shadows, a part of her disappeared with both men. Both Tristan and Alex. Her husband as he had been, Alex as he now stood before her, exuding calm and charisma, but the rest of her did not dare follow. 34

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Alex may have been the epitome of cool collectedness, but there were no arctic rivers running down her spine as she watched him studying her closely. Geysers warming her all over was how Lin would have described the effect his stare had on her. “Go get your rest, Madeleine. We’ll pick this up tomorrow.” Her full name sounded nice coming from his low, lyrical voice. “He’s very…hypnotic, isn’t he, chérie? Stop trying to charm my wife on sight, you smug ass, and let me kiss her good night, will you?” “What? I’m just standing here trying to be polite and considerate.” Lin listened to the exchange, equal parts amused and embarrassed. Tristan had caught on easily to her confusion but then, she had not tried to hide it. He had caught on just as fast to the simmering interest when she had tried to suppress it even from herself. When had anything gotten past her observant husband? She expected to see Tristan’s eyes again, some sign of an internal battle and his need to hold her again for that kiss, but nothing happened. Alex obviously held the reins now and wouldn’t yield. “I’ll see you in the morning then. Good night.” Not knowing what else to do or say, Lin turned to go. “Not so fast.” Lin found herself facing Alex again. He wasn’t simply standing there anymore, he was pulling her closer. He took her into his arms, rounding her waist with one and cupping her face with his palm. The darkness and warmth of him were so very inviting, almost as intoxicating as it was being held tight by Tristan, seeing the infinite lust and longing in him. It was all she could do not to lean into him and beg him to never let go. “Good night.” The words fell a whisper away from her lips and then he was kissing her. Everything she had seen in his eyes now poured into her from his mouth and she couldn’t help herself, couldn’t fight the reaction. She had almost lost him but here he was. She had thought she would never hold him again yet here he now stood.

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Lin wanted to cry and laugh in relief. She wanted to scream at him for dying on her, she wanted to lash out at him for scaring her then get on her knees and thank the everloving heavens for letting him come back. She kissed him with all the force of the conflicting emotions welling inside until she thought she might collapse from the pain that throbbed in her chest, head and heart. She clawed at him, leaned into him, and he welcomed her. Stood before her like the rock he had always been, her strength, her safety, and let her be weak. He whisked her up, brought her eye to eye and held her to him. Fighting for breath, Lin broke off the kiss and pressed her forehead to his. “I missed you too, Tristan. I missed you so much.” Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me again. Lin couldn’t bring herself to say it. She couldn’t ask him to promise that. She might be in his arms but it wasn’t her husband’s body. It wasn’t his decision to make on his own and it wasn’t his promise to give. The awful burn of tears threatening her again, Lin wriggled out of his arms and ran off like the cowardly cat fear and uncertainty had suddenly made her.

“Don’t. She’s confused. Let her settle.” Tristan stared after Lin, who disappeared into their bedroom. Their bedroom, dammit, where he would swear she had wanted to invite him. But Alex was right. She was confused. Her eyes had darted from a portrait of Tristan to the picture of the group hug, Lin squeezed between him and Danny, and back to Alex. Tristan could guess what she was thinking because he was thinking it too. How the hell had this happened? What would happen to them? Who would make the next move and would it bring them together or tear them apart? He had the distinct, disturbing feeling Alex held some of the answers. What he couldn’t decide was whether the knowledge filled him with hope or dread. Alex wanted her. “Tell me you didn’t throw around that pinup you snatched from Danny, you perv.”

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“Perv? Had I battle jacked with a nudie pic of you, yeah, I guess you could say that. Since it was a very lovely picture of mademoiselle Madeleine, color me a red-blooded man with very good taste in women. No, I didn’t throw it around. I kept her to myself. And she was very pleased I did. Several times.” “Oh god, I don’t think I want to hear this.” “It’s a bit late for that, Tristan. I think you want to hear all about it. Aren’t you glad I’ve…mentally trained for this?” “Is that what you call fantasizing about the wife of one of your men? And don’t you fucking deny you touched her hand then couldn’t let go of her when I thought I was in command. You wanted to kiss her good night. You wanted that kiss as bad as I did.” “And if I did?” “You imagined fucking my wife!” “Yes, I fantasized about sex with your wife. In every way you want to imagine and some you wouldn’t believe. I swear I was good to her. I was so damn thorough she couldn’t get enough of me. And she was so very sexy and willing I couldn’t get enough of her.” “I will kill you. I will find a way to stomp your sorry ass to the ground and I will kill you.” “You do understand that’s against your interests? Can’t we all just get along? I say we try to make life interesting for her. And satisfying for all of us…without grinding my teeth to powder, thank you. I can feel you trying to, you know. You’re acting like a jealous jerk. Let it go, man. My fantasies never hurt her.” Tristan knew it. On both an instinctive level and an intellectual one he knew what Alex said made his life that much easier. He didn’t have to convince Alex to get to know her better. He didn’t have to try to raise his interest. He could feel that interest in his balls. He only had to raise hers. It didn’t make him feel better though, only mad. Mad and sad she would never again be solely his. That was the price he would have to pay for her love and the cost he would have to pay for hijacking Alex’s life.

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Chapter Three Lin stomped from the end of the bed to the door and back. She should have gone to bed. She should have gone to Tristan. She wanted to go to him and drag him into that bed and let Alex think what he would of her sudden cavewoman actions. Would you mind giving me a good, solid, no-holds-barred, fuck-me-’til-I-faint treatment? I’m a little on edge here. Hot and bothered and ready to scream in frustration, she threw on the sheerest nightwear she could bear in the heat—that would still let her feel at least semi-clothed in case Alex, or the fire department, decided to barge in—and tossed herself on the bed. And kept tossing until she dozed off into feverish dreams. Those dreams didn’t help Lin sleep. They soon woke her up. She didn’t feel rested and she certainly didn’t feel relaxed. She was on the edge, ready to explode. Giving in to the desperate need for release, she hiked the baby doll up to her waist, wriggled out of the matching thong and opened her thighs under the covers. She was absolutely soaked and painfully swollen as she slid her fingers over her pussy. The images she’d woken up to played in her head and egged her on. Lin licked at her lips and imagined tasting Tristan. He had been in her mouth. She had been gripping his shaft. She had slid her hand from base to crown and sucked on him as Alex had worked his cock into her, inch by agonizing inch. Lin imagined sucking Tristan in between the moans and the whimpers Alex drew from her as he pushed into her. Her moans vibrated on Tristan’s flesh and he loved it, she knew he loved it from the sounds he was making, from the force with which he held her head. He was holding back, trying to fight it. He wasn’t pushing into her mouth yet but he would. He let her set the pace for now, let her pleasure him freely but she could make him lose it. She would make him lose control and make him fuck her 38

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mouth. He would start pushing into her mouth and she would take it. She would take as much of him as she could, rub her tongue against the tender underflesh and suck him tight and deep into her mouth with every push. She had always loved sucking on him. It hadn’t been hard with someone as sexy as Tristan. Now Alex was making it nearly impossible for her to concentrate. Holding on to the base of his cock, he slid the tip past her pussy lips, the broad head opening her up, teasing her entrance where he glided in and out, barely entering, never fully penetrating. He stretched her so sweetly only to pull out then blister her all over again with his cock on her pussy lips. “You’re a tease. You’re a terrible tease, you know that, Alex,” she would have to inform him. “Oh but you love it like that, don’t you, Lin? The anticipation. The waiting makes you wet. It makes me hard. And it’s gonna make Tristan come in your mouth in no time. Those little sounds you’re making while you suck on him. Those little tremors you can’t hold back because you love the feel of my dick in your pussy. You know it’s gonna be good. You know I’m gonna give it to you good, don’t you, angel? And you can’t wait.” “Tease,” she would whisper on the tip of Tristan’s cock. She could taste the pre-cum now, she could feel the warning pulses, hear the heated, rushed breaths he drew, close, so close to release in her mouth. “Ah fuck, Lin,” Tristan groaned and she saw his eyes close, sensed his thighs tremble, his beautiful body straining under her where he lay. “Suck on him, angel. I want to see you suck him straight to heaven. Be a good girl to him and I promise I’ll be an extra bad boy to you when you’re done.” Lin imagined gripping Tristan hard, pulling him deep inside her mouth to suckle even harder. He filled her mouth with his silky smooth length, slid on her tongue and she sucked on him, sucked his release from him. His cum warmed her mouth and she drank him greedily, every pulse, her name falling from his lips as he pumped his hips. 39

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She loved the taste of him, the sound of his voice as he came, needy and demanding, the sight of him in surrender, lean and strong and all hers. She loved him with everything in her, and the man kneeling behind her, caressing the curve of her ass, the swell of her hips, knew it. Alex had to know it. She wouldn’t let him forget she belonged to Tristan first. But she couldn’t fight the need to rejoin that part of her that had disappeared into the sexy, shady corners of her mind. That forbidden corner Tristan had invited her to and where Alex waited. “Nice and easy, Lin, or hard and fast? How do you want me, sweetie? Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.” Lin licked the last remnants of cum from the tiny slit on Tristan’s cock. He shivered with every lash of her tongue, hissed at her, his belly quivering. “Enough,” she heard him growl but he wouldn’t retreat, only stared at her intently, the lust never fading. It tightened his features. The arousal was there, plain and strong as he stroked her hair. “Answer the question, chérie. He’s waiting.” Lin curled one last droplet into her mouth and licked her lips like a satisfied cat after her buttermilk. But she wasn’t done. Alex wasn’t done. And Tristan wasn’t done with either one of them. “Maybe I should decide. I know what you like so maybe I’ll tell him what to do to you. Or maybe I’ll let him give it to you any way he wants. And how he wants to, honey. I can see it in his eyes. They’re glowing golden brown, shining with lust. You feel it, don’t you? In the way his hands pet your hips. In the way his fingers trail over your ass, waiting to hit that hot spot between your thighs. He’s gonna do more than tease that clit. I’m going to tell him to fuck you. And I’m going to watch. I’m going to watch him take you and I promise you’ll love it. I sure as hell will.” Oh god oh god oh god… Lin wanted the vibrator. She should have taken it out, even if she couldn’t turn it on, and used it to imagine being fucked by Alex with Tristan watching. She wanted both of them. She needed to imagine being fucked hard by both men before she could think of actually making love with either one of them. Even 40

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though she knew she would never have one man without the other taking part. Never again be with Tristan without touching Alex too. Never go to Alex and forget Tristan lived inside him. The two men now shared one body and having them separately was only a fantasy. That was what she needed now, the vision of Tristan and Alex tending to her. The mere thought of what it would possibly be like brought her so close so fast, a moan of naked lust escaped her throat into the silence of her bedroom. Lin stilled. Oh no. No, no, no. Had they heard her? Was Tristan having as much trouble sleeping as she was? After all that had happened, he would still be either boiling on the couch or knocked out cold from the sheer overload of it all. Lin propped herself on her elbows and tried to listen for any telltale sounds. None came. Until a light went on in the living room and, without sound or warning, her bedroom door started to open. Alex stopped at the door, one hand on the knob, the other resting at chest-level on the frame. Lin thought he looked tasty beyond words. He had stripped to his boxers and she could see his powerful form in sharp silhouette, his beautiful body cut out for her. She couldn’t see his expression and that rather suited her as she could only imagine what he thought upon seeing her position under the thin covers. “Lin? Everything okay in here?” His hands dropped. He stepped in and Lin watched, mesmerized, as he closed the distance in a few long, supple strides. “It sounded as if you were having a bad dream.” He dropped his voice to a seductive rasp. “The bad, naughty kind.” He stood at the end of her bed for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. Her eyes adjusting to the change in lighting, she could see him much better now. He was hard for her, his cock straining and clearly outlined in his snug boxers.

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He placed one knee on the bed then the other, propped his hands on the covers and stared at her like a beast ready to jump his prey. Lin thought he looked like a crouched lion. His hair was tousled, his wide chest heaved deeply, the muscles in his arms and shoulders were tight and rippling under the sleekness of his skin. His thighs looked massive, squashed against his calves, and judging from the bulge in his boxers, she doubted women had any complaints concerning his prowess in that area. His eyes glistened as he consumed her with his gaze. He ate her slowly, going down her body and stopping to stare at what still lay hidden from sight. She could feel the thin coverlet start to cling at the wetness of her slick entrance now that her hand no longer covered it and wondered if he could see the damp fabric.

Without giving Lin a chance to change position or protest, Tristan snatched the cover from her and sent it flying to the floor. What was revealed made him stiffen in silent awe and appreciation. Her nightgown was around her waist and her parted legs exposed all of her for his complete appraisal. Her lower belly and hips glowed in a honeyed hew and her silky smooth pussy… Her delicious pink pussy positively glistened. Tristan drew a sharp breath of need and drank in the sight and scent of her before letting out a long, ragged sigh. He’d missed the inviting, intoxicating smell of her excitement. Lin hadn’t believed at first that he loved her pussy cream until he had taught her to love him licking her squeaky clean of it. That resulted in more of the mellow ambrosia pouring forth, telling him she was ready for him. Stroking himself to the sound of her voice on the phone or to the memories of all the sex they’d had over the years had done little to ease his craving. The single guys, and even some of the married ones, had teased him for not tasting the local delicacies. The mere thought of being unfaithful to Lin was so distasteful, so out of the realm of 42

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possibility, he didn’t know what to call it. No matter how far from home he was or whether she would ever find out about it or not. She had his heart. She was his soul. He would have given his life for her without flinching or hesitation. And he had gone to extreme measures to ensure that even in the event of his death, they would not be torn apart. Here he was, kneeling at the feet of the only woman he had ever loved, trapped in the body of another man, something she might never accept or overcome. His yearning had grown to a boiling point that made him certain if he didn’t self-combust, he might have to set himself on fire to be rid of the torture. Her naked body was only inches away and he controlled Alex’s. And that’s who Lin saw. Tristan might have been holding the reins but he knew it was a dark, hulking stranger she saw climbing into their bed. The sight of Alex looking ready to make a mess of the sheets because Tristan was about to burst from the need to have her. He knew her. He loved her. And he had never been so uncertain as to how to proceed with her. “Lin?” Tristan heard himself ask in Alex’s voice, a broken whisper.

Lin’s thighs started to tremble. She tried to close them. She tried to force herself into some controlled line of action before she jumped the man kneeling in front of her who looked like a sex god sent in answer to her lustful prayers. She had dreamed of giving Tristan a blowjob while Alex fucked her. She had fantasized about it, fantasized it was what Tristan wanted too. How she wished she could get back to and get on with the wet dream and imagine being with both. Lin wriggled out of her last piece of clothing and threw herself on the pillows. It didn’t shut out the visual splendor that was Alex. He still knelt there, aroused, as turned on as she was. And she still wanted him. Them. Her powerfully seductive Tristan and the equally desirable Alex. Alex wasn’t a dream but Tristan was nothing but an illusion and she wasn’t sure how to hold on to it. 43

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His hands settled around her ankles. “Tristan?” “It’s okay, honey. I know. Don’t be scared.” He started to rub the length of her shins. Lin wondered at the soothing effect when the heat of his stare was stifling. She relaxed her thighs, let her knees fall apart and watched him lower his eyes to the apex of her legs. His hands stopped to rest on her parted knees, his eyes snapping back to hers. They stared at one another, Tristan asking permission, Lin granting it by nodding slowly while her eyes turned to his hands on her. He started fondling her again, his hands moving up and down as he’d done with her shins, only more forcibly now. A lighter touch would have tickled. She could feel the press and strength of every single finger as he went from knee to hip and down again. Lin all but forgot her doubts as she concentrated on how exquisite his touch felt, every time. He had already held her, kissed her, massaged her. As he now caressed her, he was getting ever closer to the one spot that still screamed for attention. The hollow, heated center of her sex, saturated with the moisture his touch drew. She was flushed and not a little self-conscious. She was searching her way back to the bold and shameless woman in her dream, the woman who had reached out to both Tristan and Alex. She was enjoying his touch and couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this fine. It made her wish she could forever hold on to the moment and the vivid memories of how Tristan had always made her feel exactly like this. As if he had heard her, he let go of her thighs, moved to gently scoop her up and positioned himself behind her on the bed. Lin leaned against him and indulged in the fantasy of being held by Tristan as Alex’s arms slowly encircled her.

“Easy now,” Tristan warned as he sensed Alex rising. “She wants more, man,” Alex rasped in private.

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“Thanks, I kind of sensed that too. Would you mind telling me what you’re doing gatecrashing?” Tristan sighed, annoyed at the intrusion. “Just wanted to tell you I think I want more too. To get the feel of her. Of how she likes to be…handled.” If it hadn’t been for Lin, Tristan would have scoffed out loud. “Handled? Really, Alex. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were rattled.” Tristan was delighted at Lin’s reaction to him but what really amazed him was Alex’s apparent loss of restraint. He kept coming through, rising, resisting him. Tristan would not be able to curb Alex’s actions if the man himself wasn’t willing to practice that famous self-control of his. And if Alex lost it, Tristan wasn’t sure what Lin would do or if anything could be salvaged. “Rattled?” Alex snorted. “Don’t blow this, Alex. You’re not flying solo. I’m in command now, do you understand?” “Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir.” And with that last sneer and a snicker, Alex fell silent. “Smart-ass,” Tristan replied before he tightened his hold on Lin. To her, he said, “I want to keep touching you. Tell me now if you don’t want me to.” She turned her head to face his throat and her every quick and shallow breath now burned his already-fever-hot skin. She kept silent and gradually Tristan loosened his hold. He kept one hand wrapped around her waist and let the other fall to her lower belly. It quivered under his palm as he spread his fingers on her. Aching painfully from the need to be inside her, unable to stop himself despite all he had just warned Alex against, he raised his hand from her waist to press her precious face tighter to his skin while the hand on her belly petted her gently. “You’re so damn beautiful, ma chérie. God, how I missed you, all of you…” Tristan kissed her cheek and Lin exhaled a long, broken sigh.

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Encouraged by her total surrender in his arms, Tristan lowered both hands. One enclosed her breast. It swelled and tightened under his palm, the nipple beading hard against the pressure of his hand. The feel of her unrestrained softness was almost too much to bear and Tristan was only getting started. She would be the death of him and he didn’t have nine lives to spare, dammit. His other hand rested on her mound, the base of his palm on her lower belly. His fingers reached for her smooth slit, radiating heat and the undeniable, seductive scent of her excitement. He pressed his middle and ring fingers tighter and started a circular movement aimed at her clit. Lin’s hips jerked under his hands, her back arching against his chest. “Shh, honey. It’s okay, just feel. Just close your eyes and feel me.” Relaxing again in his embrace, she leaned back to rest closer to him. And opened her thighs wider. Tristan gasped. Her juices coated the tips of his fingers in seconds. Careful to give her time to react and retreat, he signaled his intentions. He let his fingers touch her inner lips, skating on the slick flesh, spreading the moisture along the slit of her pussy and the tight hood of her clit. He touched her lightly, taking care not to press in, not to push too far, too soon, no matter how damn much he wanted to. Going slow was killing him fast but he’d rather skydive without a chute than scare her or leave her feeling used. Lin’s lips trembled against his skin. He stilled the hand on her pussy for only a second, making her breath hitch. And her hips twitch. Had Tristan not had his hand on her, he might not have noticed. But her hips had moved, he would swear. They had moved against him, closer to him. She wasn’t denying him. And he would rather die than deny her. “Just breathe, chérie. Just breathe and feel me. Feel good for me.” Taking courage and his cues from her abandon and languor, Tristan spread her drenched entrance and entered her with one finger.

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Lin moaned against his throat. It made his eyes close tight. It was getting to be too much too soon. He was getting ready to come as sure as she was. He pulled the soaked finger out and tried to concentrate on her needs instead of his, but if she made another sound as he added a second finger to pleasure her more fully, he wouldn’t be able to hold it. It was Tristan’s turn to hold his breath to try to mitigate the effect she was having on him. Hell, he’d waited this long. He could wait another day or an hour or two. He had to. But Lin, she needed him right now. He swallowed hard and slipped two fingers inside her slickness. How good it would feel on his cock when he finally fucked her― Don’t. Just breathe. This was about Lin. It was all about her. Everything he’d ever wanted he held in his arms at long last and he wouldn’t spoil the moment. He wouldn’t spoil it for her. He started a series of deep, easy thrusts, looking for the spot that would swell and guide him to pleasure her to the highest heights. The movement of her hips was unmistakable now as she pressed to welcome him, to take him deeper, her voice equal parts whimper and wail as she echoed him. “Just like that. Oh yeah.” He took her clit between his index and middle fingers and played with her, rolled the tightened bud between the digits. She pressed harder against him then tried to escape him, forcing him to anchor her down with his arm. He released her clit, flicked it for long moments with his thumb while he fingered the opening of her pussy. “You want more, don’t you, honey? You want my fingers back in your pussy. How many?” He slipped one barely inside the entrance, drew an O along the tissue of her opening, stretched her, teased her. He pulled out and quickly entered her with two fingers. He pushed them in to the second joint and started a scissoring motion, opening them inside her channel then pulling out to her entrance. Closing his fingers, he pushed back into her and continued his sensuous torture. “More,” she moaned. “Tristan, please…” 47

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“How many, chérie? How much more can you take?” He pulled out of her to tease her clit again, making her jolt in his hold. She was close now, swollen under his fingers, trying to press closer, make him make her come. Reveling in how responsive she was, rushing her along before he went against his intentions and came all over her arching back, he picked up the pace and started to pleasure her in a frantic, alternating loop. Tristan pushed three digits inside her to the knuckles. A hoarse cry escaped her throat. He finger-fucked her deeply, gliding in and out of her tight wetness then pulling out again to torment her distended clit. Back and forth, over and over, he took care to keep his fingers either buried deep inside her pussy or dead center on her clit. “Oh god, oh please, baby please,” she pleaded. Tipping her chin, Tristan pressed his mouth to the corner of hers briefly. “Come for me, Lin. Let me feel it. I need to feel it.” Her husky moans turned to gruff, guttural breaths as she bucked in his arms and came apart, spasmed around his fingers, raw and genuine in sound and sensation. Tristan slowly withdrew the fingers and stroked her opening gently. He skimmed over the puffy, sensitive bundle of nerves with drenched, featherlight fingers, lapping up the small whimpers she made as she eased against him. He had to have her, at least the taste of her, anything to ease the hunger while suspecting it was bound to make it worse. Deciding he would rather be sorry than safe, Tristan lifted the sopping digits to his mouth and tasted. “Ah fuck, that’s too sweet for words.” Alex. Alex barging in again. “Put them in my mouth. Do it.” His mouth. Alex’s mouth. Lin might be imagining her husband, talking to him, but Alex was listening in too, his body holding her, his arousal raging as hard as Tristan’s. Never the two of them again, always three. And their third evidently wanted a part of her and he wanted a part of the action. 48

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“She’s mine, Alex. Tonight she’s all mine.” “I’m not taking over, I’m just saying.” “What?” “I want those fingers in my mouth.” Giving in to the urge and Alex’s wish, Tristan put the thick digits to his lips, the creamy juice tempting him to taste again, to suckle. He did. He sucked on Alex’s fingers, licked at the salt and honey he’d drawn from her and knew he was a goner. He wanted to fuck her. He wanted to fuck her so bad he would either have to get on with it right fucking now or walk out—and walking out on her was no longer an option. It stopped being an option the moment she’d surrendered to him. It was off the table the second she came all over his fingers, the moment he tasted the cum that he now wanted all over his dick. Alex’s dick. Would she be frightened all over again when she looked straight at him? Would she see him in Alex’s eyes as she had before, know it was him, be safe in the knowledge it was him touching her, making love to her? There was only one way to find out.

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Chapter Four In pure hedonistic mode, Lin rested her head on the broad shoulder behind her. She wondered if he could read her somehow; whether she was telegraphing her desires so openly and obviously, all he had to do was follow her lead. Could he hear her thinking? Was he able to pick up on all the things she secretly wanted from him? Acts that had gotten Tristan off in mere minutes and her in less than that? Tristan… She had never known the love or intimate touch of another man. The way he had made her feel had never left her craving for something or someone else and that was how she had always thought it would be. If he had not offered, would she have begged him? Possibly. No, probably. But she didn’t have to. He had known what to do and what to say, how to touch her and when, from the moment he had walked in. When she recovered from her sexual stupor and turned around, who would she see? For now, all she could do was keep her eyes closed and enjoy the afterglow. She would have, had Tristan not levered her up then pressed her back down to lie on the bed. Lin found herself beneath him, his face mere inches away, his eyes glistening with moisture and unmistakable lust. Everything he had ever confessed feeling for her shone naked in his eyes. Love, need, longing and despair, breaking her heart, stealing her breath as he stared at her unblinking, unflinching. “Lin, if you don’t want this, say it. Say it now. Tell me to back the hell off. Now!” The demand was so ragged, Lin knew he was scant seconds from losing control. The illusion of being with Tristan again called to her, tempted her to take what he offered. His cock pressed against her thighs. She would only have to open her legs and he would be pushing inside, fucking her as she had dreamed he would. They would. Alex 50

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would. The dark and dangerous reality of taking him bare wiggled into the lulling serenity of the orgasm Tristan had given her. What she had just experienced had felt like Tristan all over again. His hands, his touch, his loving possession. But the shifting colors in the eyes staring into hers, the body overshadowing and overpowering her much slighter frame and the thick shaft nudging at her legs all belonged to a different man. “And Alex?” “Alex better wait on the sidelines, honey. I’ve waited too long for this.” “Protection?” He laced his fingers in her hair, held her head in place and took her mouth in a voracious kiss. “Turn around.” His voice was muffled against her lips. He raised himself away from her and Lin turned to her belly. He launched himself back at her, covered her body with the length and heat of his own. Christ how she wanted to feel that body sliding against hers. The rock-hard planes of his chest and abs, those muscular hips and thighs, his balls banging on her as he fucked her, took her to the hilt. Her clit pulsed in renewed arousal. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Should she have said no? Maybe she should at least be alarmed. It was Alex’s big body, his thick cock. But it was Tristan she heard. It was his lust and devotion she felt. The strength of her pain, and feelings of loss, desire and undying love for the man she had feared would never hold her again, had made it easy to give in to him. And she wanted him. She wanted him to want her like that again. To experience once more everything Tristan had always managed to awaken in her with his hands, his mouth, his cock. He promised. If I look past Alex, if I look deep inside, will I see him?

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Lin heard the rushed beat of his steps, the ripping foil, the low curse as he fumbled before climbing back on the bed. “Now you can move. Back up for me, honey.” Pushing up to her elbows, Lin pulled her legs and hips up and lifted her ass into the air, knees wide open for him. She expected hunger. She expected him to nudge her cheeks apart, push into her throbbing pussy in one long thrust and not stop driving into her before she pulled his cock to climax. After what she had seen in his eyes, heard in his voice, that was all she expected, all she wanted. She wanted to feel the mind-shattering pleasure Tristan had given her so many times. “Tristan? Baby?” “You’re gonna be tight around me, aren’t you, chérie? Your pussy gets all swollen when you come. Extra sensitive too. It won’t take much to make you come again, will it, honey? And you need release. Just as bad as I need you to give it to me.” His fingers eased onto her pussy lips, petting, probing. “If you want it, you’re going to have to take it. I want to feel you come all over my cock and let me have it.” His fingers parted her and the thick nub of his shaft settled against her. He didn’t enter but she could feel the pressure at her opening, the taunting feel of him. He teased her, rubbed her opening lightly then slid slowly, so damn slowly up and down her slit, stopping at the puckered hole of her ass, not to enter but to let her feel him touching her there. He traveled down to massage her turgid clit. He wouldn’t have to enter her. The way he was playing, she would be coming all over the tip of his dick and he would be forced to take his pleasure if he wanted it. “Shh, honey, nice and easy. Feels good, doesn’t it? But it’s not enough, is it? You need more than my fingers. You need my cock. You need me stretching you, pressing in and stretching you wide. You only think you can’t take it. So damn tight you’re not sure I’m gonna fit into this tiny pussy. You know what? Neither am I, chérie. What if you can’t take it? What if it’s not just pleasure you feel?” 52

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Lin knew he knew she could take the occasional pinch of pain. He knew it only intensified the pleasure that followed. “Then give me something for the pain,” Lin exclaimed, shifting restlessly to align herself with him and pushing back. Lin gasped at the exquisite sensation. Tristan slammed his hands on her hips with a loud groan. “Do. Not. Move.” She could feel him everywhere. Filling her fully, stroking every nerve ending sensitized by his fingers and her orgasm. The acute pleasure twined from her pussy to her belly and up her spine and prickled her scalp. She could hear him trying to control his breathing—heavy, heated breaths that betrayed he was as close as she was. Lin contracted her inner muscles tentatively. Tristan hissed. She gave his cock small, sensuous hugs, tugged at his length with a series of twitches. It only made her own pleasure more intense, drawing her closer to climax. She wanted to come. She wanted to drag it out. She wanted to stay in that one moment forever, impaled on his cock, knowing he could get her off with just one thrust, feeling him ready to release. Lin started rotating her hips, pulling on him with her pussy. She could have sworn he was loosening his hold, giving her room to move. It was all she needed. Her orgasm building up fast, she thrust against his thighs, as far as he would let her, as deep as she could take him, so deep it would have hurt if it had not been such numbing pleasure to feel and take all of him. His cock twitched, pulsed. “Ah fuck. You’re gonna make me come, Lin. Make me come just like that. Oh god…” Aware of the blast of heat that never came, her cunt hungry for the hot jets of cum he couldn’t give her, Lin bucked against him, her head rolling helplessly against the pillows as another climax racked her body. She felt his cock pulsating with his release. With a heartfelt moan of pleasure, he collapsed on the bed and took her with him. He wrapped her in his arms tightly, his hard body molding itself against the soft languor of hers. 53

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“I dreamed of this, chérie. You’re all I’ve ever dreamed of.” He kissed her hair gently, so reverently, Lin closed her eyes against the senseless longing trying to surface again and grasped the hand holding her to him, the one where his wedding band would have been, where the charm bracelet now was. The stones were cool to the touch, Alex’s wrist warm and strong under hers. Alex’s. Not Tristan’s but Alex’s. Lin’s gut tightened. As though feeling the shift in her, the man holding her tight pulled her closer still. “No.” One syllable, a warning, the promise she wasn’t going anywhere. “I want to stay right here tonight, honey. Beside you, inside you, any way you want me. Sleep next to you after making love to you.” He twined his fingers with hers. “I know how odd all of this must be to you. I know it’s Alex you see but can’t you feel me? Say yes, Lin,” he coaxed and kissed her hair again. “To us.” Lin caught the slight emphasis on the word. “Us, as in you and me, or you and him?” “Whichever. Both. There won’t be one equation without the other.” She would be mad to turn him down. She wanted his mouth and hands on her. She wanted his cock again. She wanted him to keep fucking her until she begged him to stop, until he pleaded with her to have mercy. They had barely started and Lin didn’t feel like stopping any time soon. It was weird. But it was also wonderful being in his arms once more. It bordered on forbidden, having Alex in their bed, but Tristan made it safe. And she was trying to rationalize things while her body taunted her that all she truly wanted was for him to keep going, to pleasure her senseless while she did her best to pleasure him as well. “Yes,” she said firmly. “Hell yes,” he whispered hoarsely.

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Tristan woke up at dawn, cursing for the hundredth time that Alex was a morning person. He had envied the Major’s energy and supercharged being in training and on missions alike. But on a morning like this, back home, after making love and sleeping next to Lin again, Tristan didn’t want to get up with the sun or move a muscle. He didn’t want to miss one moment together with her. “Hold up, Alex. Gimme one more minute. Let me watch her for a while. She looks so pretty when she dreams.” Alex was in command, getting up for an early morning run before the heat made it hell. He sat down on the bed next to Lin. “She looks so peaceful…but she has nightmares she refuses to talk about. She says she can’t remember, but I know she does because some fucking awful things have happened that don’t shock her or surprise her one bit, as if she’d been expecting them.” “Premonitions?” “Something like that.” “You think she knew you would die?” “I don’t know but I do know this. You think this is all about me. It’s all for her. I owe Lin. I owe her some serious loving, everything I got. She married me when I was only getting into the force. She knew what ambitions I had, what sacrifices she would have to make. Still she wanted me. The times away from each other when she didn’t know where I was and for how long, all the danger she knew I was getting into, how it got riskier by the year… I think she knew much more than she let on. But not once did she talk about leaving or giving up on me. You’ve seen that happen. Couples falling apart ’cause it’s so damn hard to juggle it all. Lin only said she had her work, I had mine and she knew I missed her like crazy too.” “You’re a lucky man, Tristan.” “She’s an exceptional woman. How do you give up something or someone like that? You don’t. I couldn’t. I promised I would be with her for the rest of her life. That’s all I thought of the day Danny died and I turned to you. I only thought of her and what I’d promised. I love how independent she is in spirit, how damn stubborn she is when she knows she’s right about

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something. And when she knows she’s wrong, she pretends she doesn’t care but she hates humble pie. I don’t think I’ll ever learn all the things that make her who she is because just when you think you know where it’s at, it’s always somewhere else with her. And that, my friend, as contradictory as it sounds, is fucking fantastic.” “And being one hundred and ten percent compatible in bed doesn’t hurt either.” “Why thank you, Alex. Coming from the favorite of the sex gods, that’s a huge compliment.” “And that’s one major exaggeration.” “When have you ever gone without?” “Last night?” “Oh and thank you for last night too.” “Don’t thank me, thank Lin. It was all up to her.” “Were you surprised she let us in her bed?” “It’s your bed too, Tristan. She’s your wife.” “Was. She was my wife.” “She obviously still is or she wouldn’t have let you in.” “Was, or she wouldn’t have let you in too.” “She’s been waiting for you from the day you went missing. And she was touching herself when you walked in on her. It wasn’t doubt or caution that drove her, it was want.” “Lin’s a curious cat. She’s a very…spirited lover.” “You mean she loves sex.” “And damn if I don’t love her for it. But don’t make this about sex, Alex. Sometimes I think I’ll never get enough of her. Then other times I only want to hold her, watch her. And sometimes I can’t decide. She makes me feel ten things at once and it’s like my heart, my head and my soul can’t take it. Have you ever loved someone like that, Alex? Have you ever wanted a woman so bad you would have done anything just to watch her sleep? Felt at home with someone, known that wherever she is is home?”

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“No.” “Do you know how many people search for a love like that all their life? How many people never find it?” “Of course I do. What is it with you this morning?” “If you never forgive me, at least try to understand why I did it. Whatever happens between the three of us, promise me you’ll never take it out on her.” “Calm down, man. What kind of asshole do you take me for? I said she’s innocent and I meant it. I’d never hurt her to get back at you, I can promise you that. Feel better?” “Infinitely.” “Can we go now?” “Tuck her in first, will you?” Tristan watched Alex pull the covers over Lin and watch her for another moment. He didn’t dare ask what the man was thinking. His thoughts could be of Lin or they might be on breakfast or running. Tristan wished there was some way to predict where they were headed. He had no way of knowing. Not what Alex was thinking since he now veiled his thoughts, not what Lin would feel when she woke up and faced Alex, the man she had let in her bed and inside her body while trying to imagine Tristan. It could all lead to hell with no way back if he didn’t take care and curb his jealousy toward Alex, his need to rush things along or his need for her. But damn, merely looking at Lin through Alex’s eyes made him want to wake her up, take her under him again and make her come so hard she would scream his name for all of Marigny and maybe some of the French Quarter to hear. Alex got up and walked to the front door, picked up the flower Lin had forgotten on the cabinet, now a little worse for wear but maybe savable. “Vase?” he asked, and Tristan showed him where to find one. He watched Alex dip the rose in it after tying the delicate ribbon around the narrow glass opening, marveling

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at the dexterity in such large hands. He’d noticed it before, the nimbleness of a surgeon in hands as big and rough as a carpenter’s. “Nice touch,” he commented. “We need to leave her a note.” Tristan rummaged the kitchen for pen and paper and scribbled a few lines in case Lin should wake up while they were gone. He noticed his handwriting pouring from Alex’s hand. “Thanks, man.” “Whatever makes it easier on her.” Alex dropped off the note and the vase by the bedside table. Lin had turned to her back and lost the covers. Alex readjusted them over her breasts. “Would you mind giving her a kiss?” “I suffer in silence every second,” Alex said and bent down. Tristan expected to land one on her temple. He would have settled for her cheek. What he didn’t see coming was Alex carefully wiping a strand of hair from her face and cupping it gently before putting his mouth on hers. He took a long sip from her lips, let his hand circle her neck and pull her to him more tightly for long seconds. “Now we can go,” Alex said.

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Chapter Five Lin woke up to sounds coming from the bathroom. She turned to stare straight at a vase and the note that had materialized on her bedside table. Ran out to get breakfast. Love T & A. Run the men obviously had, Lin thought as she caught a glimpse of Alex undressing by the bathroom door. His skin was flushed and glistening, his muscles pumped up and buff from the exercise. Long, muscular limbs, big hands and big feet, his wide shoulders and back narrowing to a trim waist and hips with an ass that should have been put on display and labeled “Perfect”. The man was absolutely edible. Alex, who had let Tristan use his body to make love to her. Alex, whose body she had taken to bed to imagine being with Tristan once again. Alex, whose voice had spoken her husband’s loving words, lustful words, while he had fucked her once, twice, who the hell had been counting how many times during the night. Lin’s belly coiled uneasily just thinking about it. Them, the three of them. Her husband and the stranger he had brought into their bed. And she had not only dreamed of having them in that bed, she had welcomed them. “It’s insane, I know.” She heard his voice echo her thoughts as she lay on her side staring at the magnificent man in the master bathroom. Only then did he turn to look at her and walk into the bedroom. She had enjoyed looking at Tristan naked. She definitely wasn’t suffering looking at Alex. “How did you know I was awake?” “Peripheral vision. I swear Alex has eyes in the back of his head. As I said, he’s crazy. Would I ever get up this early, after having amazing sex into the wee hours, and run to get breakfast?” 59

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“No,” Lin admitted. “Never.” She laughed. Tristan padded closer with not a shred of self-consciousness, parading Alex’s naked body in front of her. Maybe he didn’t give it a second thought while in command. The sight was absolutely stunning whatever the case. “Like what you see? Now that you can see it better?” “Who wants to know?” “Does your answer differ depending on who’s asking? It really shouldn’t. We’re both in here, you know. We can both hear your answer no matter who you’re talking to. So do you like what you see? I would have loved to see you better last night, but Tristan thought it might make it harder for you to imagine him. We’re not exactly carved out of the same wood, are we?” “Fishing for compliments, Alex? You’re very easy on the eyes, but you know that, don’t you? You don’t mind standing there in your birthday suit because you know every inch is quite perfect. But then so was Tristan.” “My birthday suit? I wasn’t born looking like this, angel. I work hard for these inches. And before you start wondering, they’re one hundred percent organic. How your lazy-ass husband managed to stay fighting fit is a question for the ages. You should have heard him bellyache when I got up.” “We did work out hard all night.” “Yeah, we did.” Alex now stood by the bed, tall, broad, imposing and half-erect at Lin’s eye level. Yeah, he was proportionate in size all over, as her mildly sore pussy attested. “Good to hear your ego is intact even if your mind is divided. Would you mind telling me what you’re doing?” Tristan asked. “Since you have nothing to be shy about,” Alex went on, “body wise or regarding last night, why don’t you join us in the shower?” “Alex, don’t push it.”

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“Tristan wants you to. He just doesn’t know how to ask you now that you’re staring at me like a frightened fawn.” “I’m not.” “Not what? Frightened? Interested? Aroused?” “What the hell, Alex. Back off.” “You don’t want her in that shower with you?” “I’m not sure I want her in that shower with you the way you’re talking and acting.” “Too arrogant?” “Too dominant.” “Takes one to know one, doesn’t it? If you think you’re awake enough now, she’s all yours, Tristan.” “Pay no mind to him, Lin. I told you he’s nuts. I wouldn’t mind bathing you though. We’ll keep it light, okay? What you say goes and both of us will respect that.” “That means you too, Alex. Understood? No rising against me on this, are we clear?” “Crystal. Unless you ask me to.” “Unless I ask you to.” Tristan sighed. He wanted her in that shower with him, that much Alex had gotten right. From how hard he was getting looking at her it didn’t take a smart man like Alex or an intuitive woman like Lin to guess he wanted more than that. Tristan saw uncertainty in her eyes but inquisitiveness too, a hunger to experience the world with all her senses. He loved that about her. He loved her and any man in love with his wife shouldn’t be thinking what he was thinking. But he wasn’t an ordinary man anymore. This wasn’t your everyday relationship and she would never again be exclusively his. To have her, he would have to share her. He would have to let Alex have a part of her and watch Lin open up to him in return. Even if it spelled the second death of him. “And if I ask you to? To take part. Touch her as yourself?”

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“Serious?” “As cancer.” “As myself?” “In command.” “And you won’t try to find a way to kill me later?” “Only if you hurt her in any way, shape or form.” “You can fucking stop with that already.” “Then prove it. Show me and show Lin there’s nothing to be scared of. That it’s all good.” “Only if she wants it too. Only if she knows what’s happening and wants it too.” “Lin? Honey?” Tristan coaxed her to look at him. She had turned her eyes away but he needed her to look at him. To look back at Alex. No hiding under covers, no hiding under the cover of darkness. No pretending or fantasizing. Lin and him and Alex. Like it would be from now on if she wanted to be with him. Like he needed for them to want it so he could be with her always. “Will you shower with us? Will you let me wash you?” Seconds passed by in silence. “Yes.” He scooped her up, carried her through the open door and let her down gently.

Lin swallowed hard. She wasn’t frightened as Alex had insinuated. Seeing the lustful gleam in his eyes, Tristan’s eyes, hearing the roughness in her husband’s voice, standing so close to his heavenly body, Alex’s body, she may have been a little more than interested, as he had suggested. And aroused. Turned on and confused, sore from the sex they’d had, hurting from feeling two ways at once. Seduced by the thought of being with Tristan. Seduced by the thought of being touched by Alex. She couldn’t look at them. Maybe if she didn’t look at Alex she would be able to imagine Tristan like she had in the semi-darkness of their bedroom. The illusion had

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almost been perfect. The night certainly had been but she knew she owed it to both men. She had been drunk on Tristan’s words and the love he’d made to her but it had been Alex’s body on her, behind her, under her, his cock deep inside her every time. And it had been just as wonderful to have him fuck her as some of the most skyscraping times she’d had sex with Tristan. God but she was being bad. Nothing but sex on the brain again. Sex with two men, burning her brain and heating her body. The only time she had imagined being with another man had been when Danny had been chosen to complete the spell and the pact. Now she was very much interested in the prospect of showering with a man, nothing like her husband or Danny, aroused by the thought of both of them touching her all over, only frightened by the intensity of it all. Lust, doubt and curiosity warring inside her, Lin stepped into the shower and faced the wall. She wouldn’t think of what Tristan might be thinking. She could only imagine what Alex thought as she raised her arms against the wall and opened her legs wide. Tristan had said he wanted to bathe her. Damn but she couldn’t wait for them to. He gathered her hair and lifted the locks to kiss her nape. “You make quite a sight standing there in surrender, Lin.” She heard the breathlessness in his voice as he adjusted the water. He took down the handheld spray and showered her from her shoulders and back to her breasts and belly, moved languidly over her butt and thighs. Nothing but water touched her. “Put your head back, honey.” She did as ordered and let him wash her hair, luxuriating in the relaxation his fingers always brought. Realizing they would be all over her next burst the bubble, and he sensed it, the sudden tension in her. “You want to take it from here?” Where would he touch her that he hadn’t touched her last night? What was he seeing or doing he hadn’t done or seen before? But they weren’t alone anymore. They would never be alone again. The shower died. Lin heard him open the sliding door. 63

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“No. Tristan, wait.” “Are you sure, Lin? Be sure.” “Don’t leave. I’m sorry. I’m sure.” “Don’t apologize. For anything. I understand. If this is too fast too soon, believe me, I understand.” “And what does Alex say?” “He said you make quite a sight standing there in surrender. Enough to bring a man to his knees. Not many women can do that. That’s what Alex says.” Oh god. It wasn’t hard for Lin to imagine being alone with Tristan, it was absolutely impossible after hearing what Alex had said. They talked about her in private. Who knew what they were saying? “What do you want, Tristan? What am I supposed to do or say to that?” “You don’t have to do or say anything, honey, just go with the flow. Let me wash you and take care of you and the rest will take care of itself. That’s all I want.” One step at a time, Alex had said. One day and one step at a time. She could do it. She wanted to do it. For their sake. For Tristan, with Tristan. With Alex. “You’re thinking too much, Lin. Analyzing with your head what you can only decide with your heart, with your body. This luscious body I want to keep touching. Tell me you don’t want me to.” “I want you to,” she whispered. “And if Alex wants to touch you too?” Oh. God. “Let him.” Tristan didn’t linger after that, only took what he needed from her arsenal of shower gels and went for her skin with a generous amount of soap. His hands were firm as he rubbed her uplifted arms and shoulders. Big hands, long, strong digits, Alex’s broad palms rounding over to her chest and breasts. He kneaded her softly, taking extra good care washing her breasts. Her nipples hardened under his touch. 64

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“Alex wants you to know you have a beautiful body. Curves and dips in all the right places.” He flicked his thumbs over the tight beads and Lin bit her lip. He clamped her nipples then released them, rolled the tips of his index fingers over the swollen buds until she whimpered. “And here I thought I’d lost my touch. Don’t try to hold it, Lin. Don’t fight it, feel it. There’s no shame here, no regrets.” He moved to soap her back and belly, lingered on her hips and waist, running his hands over her as though molding her. “You’re so very disarming. Tight and firm here, soft and round there. It makes a man feel fiercely masculine and totally unmanned at the same time.” “Says who?” “Both of us. And your ass… Honey, your ass manages all of the above.” He knelt behind her now, a low, appreciative hum rumbling in his chest as he kissed one cheek then the other, kissed the other again before spreading her a bit. “Are you sore, Lin?” “A little.” “Well, it’s been awhile. I could kiss it better. Then again maybe Alex should. It’s all his fault so maybe I should let him take care of it. Would you like that, Lin? Would you like for him to taste your sweet pussy and make it better?” Lin fought for her breath. “I don’t know, Tristan.” “Let’s get you washed up and you can think about it, okay?” His hands soaped her butt briskly, almost hurriedly after the detailed attention he had shown the rest of her body. He straightened up and moved closer. Lin felt the heat and length of Alex’s cock against her as one hand rounded her hip and closed in on her mound. “You’re like warm silk.” His voice rasped against her temple. “All over.”

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Soapy fingers dived into her folds. His middle finger centered on her clit for a moment. Lin gasped in torment then again in disappointment as he drew back his hand to soap her mound and inner thighs. He would be done soaping her thighs in a minute then he’d shower her clean. And expect an answer. Her caring and thoughtful, assertive yet loving Tristan suddenly wanted to know if she would mind being handed over to a stranger for some oral sex. One of her absolute favorite sexual treats and he knew it. What had happened to him to make light of it like that? What would happen to her if she said yes? What the hell would happen to them if she went through with it? “I can almost hear you thinking, Lin. Stop it and just feel.” He was showering the soap off her body, leaving her pussy for last once again. Waiting for his touch, Lin closed her eyes. “Open your legs a little wider,” came his husky command. She did his bidding and poised herself for his fingers. All she felt was the running water between her thighs. He kept the showerhead close to her pussy, rocked it back and forth over her clit and cunt lips, making her sway with it. Arousal my rounded butt, Lin thought. She would soon be begging him for release if he didn’t stop what he was doing. And she would die if he suddenly did. “Is this some sexual torture they teach you?” Lin wheezed. He chuckled against her hair. “I only aim to please,” he drawled. “Anything else I can do for you?” “Let me get off?” she pleaded, not caring how needy she sounded. “That can be arranged, but not yet. You can lower your hands now but don’t turn around, okay?” She nodded. Lin heard him wash up in a hurry then step out to dry off in equal haste. Only then did he return to attend to her. He did almost as thorough a job toweling her as he had done washing her. He left the apex of her legs for last again, only patting her dry. 66

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Lin was dripping wet between her thighs as he finally took her hand and helped her out of the shower. It wasn’t the water that had her moist. It was everything he had done to her in the shower and the promise of everything that was going to happen next. Finally able to look at him, not sure she wanted to, Lin faced him. “It’s okay, Lin. I’m here too. I’ll be with you too, feeling your pleasure, but it will be Alex giving it to you. Do you understand?” She only managed a nod, searching to find her voice. “This is what you want, Tristan?” “You don’t want it?” “I need to hear you say it.” “This is what I want.” “And what does Alex want?” “I want to kiss away that soreness. Like this.” He drew her into his arms, one hand circling her waist, the other cupping her face. The heat of his erection pressed tightly to her belly. She wanted to look her fill, to watch the colors waging war in Alex’s eyes again, the most unbelievable thing she had ever seen, but she was lured by the mouth curled in a sensuous grin. She expected hard and demanding, how Tristan kissed when he was as turned on as he was now. Alex barely made contact, his lips a tentative question on her mouth. “I’ll kiss your lips real gentle, angel. Nice and tender. Would you like that?” Unable to answer him, Lin closed her eyes. “If you need more, I’ll give you more.” His mouth was on hers again, pressing light kisses on her lips, the corner of her mouth, tender as he’d promised but maybe she did want more. Maybe she wanted to know how much more he was willing to show and give her. Lin couldn’t force herself to open her eyes. She opened her mouth for him instead, only barely but it was enough.

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His kiss turned hotter, hungrier, and the tug of his arm around her tightened. Lin let him pull her to him, let the kiss pull her in and let him into her mouth. The gentleness was still there. He hadn’t asked for anything, only offered, and Lin didn’t want to turn away. Tristan said he wanted this. Alex said he wanted this. Oh, but she wanted it too. Deciding to trust that giving in wouldn’t hurt, Lin put her arms around his shoulders and kissed him back. With her husband’s consent, while he watched and took part, she kissed another man with all the heat she felt flowing between them. They offered her the chance to taste something wild and wanton. The forbidden tang of it had Lin burrowing closer to the man holding her tight. The masculine scent of him, the hardness of his body, the sheer size of the man making her want to taste him deeper, take what he offered so freely. No shame, no regrets, only pleasure. The promise of pleasure in the flavor Alex now fed her and Tristan promised could be hers. And it was merely a kiss, foreplay, a lustful appetizer from a man she had been eating with her eyes. It was Alex who now devoured her as he backed her into the bedroom and toward her bed. The kiss lightened as gradually as he had deepened it, the steps ushering them onto the bed where he lay her down before grasping her wrists and lifting her arms over her head. “Try to keep them up for me, okay?” Alex’s eyes shone more desert than ocean now, the brown warm and enticing as she looked straight at him. The sexy grin returned with a vengeance as she nodded to him. “It’s all good, sweetie. All you have to do is let me make it good for you. You want release, don’t you?” “Yes,” Lin croaked. “Then let me give it to you. Let me kiss it better and give it to you.”

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He gave her another light kiss before his mouth moved over her jaw and onto her ear. He kissed the lobe then took it into his mouth, his tongue playing with it briefly. He licked at her throat once, twice, before the rasp of his teeth closed in on her, his mouth sucking on her. He would mark her. If he continued his rough caress, surely he would mark her. She thought of disobeying his wishes and pulling his head closer still but Alex retreated and looked at the spot he’d been kissing. In alarm perhaps, she couldn’t be sure, but something tightened his expression for a fleeting moment. “Everything okay?” The brown in his eyes grew darker as he now watched her closely. “You don’t have to worry, baby. He’s not hurting me. Promise.” “Angel, it’s not Tristan who’s worried. It’s me.” “Don’t. Let me feel it. I want to feel it, Alex. All of it.” “Everything?” “Anything.” “It’s all yours.” His mouth was on hers again, tenderness making way for something rougher, the lightness in his touch deepening into a darker hunger once again. Lin fought the urge to bury her fingers in that unbelievable mane and pull him closer, kiss him as deeply as he’d kissed her only moments before. His mouth was such a heavenly treat, his kisses so damn fine, she wondered if Tristan was somehow kissing her too, the feel of it was so perfect, so very natural. He pulled away and Lin looked for confirmation. Not daring to ask, she tried to spy for some telltale signs in his eyes. They were the brown she had admired on sight with not a hint of the green tones she had marveled at. Alex’s eyes. Alex kissing her, his mouth going down her body like a conqueror taking over everything it touched. The swell of her breasts, where he teased her nipples until she writhed under him; her belly and waist, where she quivered from lashes of his tongue.

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Everywhere he touched made her more lost in his exploration. Every inch he coursed over was an inch he made his and Lin didn’t think of fighting him or resisting, only giving in. Giving in and letting him give her everything, letting both men give her what they had. Alex had made his sweet way down between her legs where he now rested, raining kisses on her inner thighs, his gaze boring into hers. The sight of his dark head between her legs was startling. His tongue lashed out hot and hard at the sensitive skin between her hip and thigh. He landed a kiss at the top of her slit. “Anything I want, Lin?” He pressed another kiss at the top of her slit. Lin nodded dazedly and opened her legs wider. He placed a kiss farther down, barely touching her clit with his lips. Surely he intended to do more than that? Like an answer to her silent plea, Alex started to lick her mound, his tongue rough and raspy against her silkiness. He worked around her clit, careful not to touch it, only blowing an occasional heated breath its way. “Your skin feels exquisite, Lin. Like porcelain and satin. I can smell the salt and honey. I want to taste it. Will you let me taste you deeper?” “Oh god, yes.” His thumbs opening her, he gave her pussy a long, languid lick. He ran his tongue tight against her flesh, from the puckered hole of her ass all the way up to her clit. Lin moaned at the amazing sensation. He licked her and Lin wanted to look her fill, watch him as he tasted her. He let go of her spread lips and suckled on them hard and it was all she could do not to burrow her head into the pillow as he continued tormenting her. His tongue parted and probed her folds, the hard tip pushing at her entrance but not entering. “You taste like mangoes, Lin. Succulent and so very soft. I need more.”

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A few more licks, a good tight suck or two and she would be down for the count. Alex slipped his tongue through her opening and pushed in and out, flicked at her clit, then drove back in to wiggle in her channel. “Please, Alex,” Lin begged. “Please, I need to… So close, baby,” she panted, begging for release. Lin felt a finger slip inside her pussy then retreat. Two thick digits entered her and curled to tease at the hottest of spots. Lin jolted. “Too sore for this, sweetie? Am I hurting you?” “No.” She didn’t recognize the voice answering him, she was so turned on and spaced out. “So damn tight, Lin. So fucking swollen on my fingers. Can you imagine what it feels like on my cock? Picture it, angel. Picture my cock fucking this wet little pussy tight and hard.” Oh god. She didn’t need to imagine it. She only needed to think of Tristan taking her last night, how his hands and his body had made her burn, to grow wetter still on Alex’s fingers. He was pumping in and out of her in a steady rhythm. “Tristan was right. This is the creamiest little cunt this side of paradise and I don’t know which one of us is more turned on, me or him.” He drew his fingers out and sucked on them, his eyes closing briefly then flaring open. “I’m going to add another finger, sweetie. Tell me if it hurts and I’ll make it better, angel. I’ll make it good, I swear. Can you take it?” She wanted to take it. Everything, anything he wanted to give to her. “Tristan wants to know you’re okay. Tell him how you’re feeling, Lin. Tell me how I’m doing.” She exhaled in pure frustration. “I’m fine. You’re doing fine.” Alex raised his brows, a lopsided grin raising the corners of his mouth. “Just fine? I think I can do better than that.”

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He pushed three fingers inside her. Three broad digits blistered her sensitized opening but Lin didn’t care. The feel of them inside her as he twisted his wrist, as those fingers twisted and moved inside her, more than made up for any discomfort. He put his mouth tight on her clit, his tongue rolling hard over it one second, the swollen bundle of nerves sucked into his mouth the next, and Lin forgot everything. Nothing lingered but the pleasure he gave her with every lick and suck, with every motion of his hand and his fingers inside her. Oh god oh god oh god. Lin thought she might lose her mind. “Come on my hand, angel. Come on my mouth,” he growled. His tongue flicked her clit harder, tapped and made her jolt. But it was the feel of his thick fingers fucking into her high and deep that set her free. Her long, gravelly moans filled the room, her back arching and hips bucking as if to escape the climax that gripped her. His arms quickly looped under her legs and over her inner thighs to keep her still. Alex sucked on her through her orgasm until she stopped struggling and started whimpering, spent and listless. Only then did he ease his hold, his unrelenting mouth now content to sprinkle her slit and mound with small kisses. “Alex, please, I can’t—” A rush of alarm and arousal coursed through her as he went back to the start and parted her pussy lips with his thumbs. She was breathless and senseless and in no way prepared to start all over yet. “Shush, it’s okay. Just one more taste. A gentle one, I swear.” His tongue was soft and light now as he lapped at the juices his foreplay and her orgasm had brought forth.

“My turn.” Alex heard the hard edge in Tristan’s words. It wasn’t a comment, it was a command—one Alex knew he couldn’t follow. “Cover up, Alex. Let me have her. I need to fuck her. Now!” Not when Tristan sounded more like a horny bastard than a lover. Not with Lin sore and sated.

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“It’s enough, Tristan.” “Enough? She said she wanted everything. Anything.” “Anything I wanted to give her.” “And this is it? It’s enough for you? You’re satisfied?” “For now. It’s enough for now.” “Stand down, Alex.” “I don’t think so.” Alex got up. Lin had turned to lie on her belly, her eyes closed, a half-smile on her lips. She had taken the pleasure he had wanted to give her and earned her rest and Alex intended to see that she got it. Pressing a kiss to her temple, he pulled the covers over her. “Breakfast in ten, sweetie.” Alex started for the door. He needed a change of clothes and a moment alone to regroup and so did Lin before they sat down for what might well turn out to be the oddest breakfast either one had ever eaten. “Get back in there.” “What am I, an open-all-hours stud service? And what the hell happened to the ‘all for her’ bit? This isn’t about what you or I want, remember, but all I hear is your dick talking and I’m done listening. Why don’t you stand down and shut up?” “You’re pulling rank on me? Regarding my wife?” “Notice how she’s your wife when it suits you? You’re her lover now and you just appointed me one.” “And you don’t want her? You don’t want to be back in there with her? You fantasized about this. You jacked off with that picture and fantasized about fucking her. Tell me she isn’t the sweetest thing you’ve ever tasted.” “We’re really doing this? Talking about how I licked and sucked her with my fingers up her pussy until I almost came too? Hell yes, I loved eating her pussy. I would love to eat that pussy until next Tuesday. I savored every second I had my cock in that tight, slick grip while you fucked her half of last night and I can’t wait for next time. Now just isn’t it. So you’re going to 73

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calm down and put out breakfast. She’s going to come out and you’re going to take your cues from her.” “And you’ll do what?” “I’ll be my charming self, what else?” “You’re incorrigible.” “And don’t you just love me for it.”

He did, actually. It may have been an instinctive choice on his part, but he had yet to regret choosing Alex. Even when the man was a wildcard, the yet-to-be-tied-downor-tamed kind. He had to let a man he would never have wanted anywhere near his wife before, now have her in every way imaginable. He hadn’t expected Danny to be content making love to her vicariously. He had no doubt Alex wouldn’t settle for that, not in the long run. He would have to have full access to Lin or he would go in search of sex somewhere else and Tristan couldn’t allow that. He didn’t want another woman even if it was Alex taking her, and he sure as hell didn’t want Alex near Lin again if he started fucking around. And then he would lose Lin. It would all have been for nothing if Alex felt left out and started stealing glances elsewhere. But Lin wanting him, wanting him to fuck her, loving the feel of him filling her, went against every jealous, male and husbandly instinct in him. He didn’t want her to want Alex, but he needed her to. He hadn’t expected it to be easy but he also hadn’t anticipated it would be so damn hard. One day at a time, Alex had said, but Tristan wasn’t sure he would survive breakfast. Lin would walk in any second and he could only imagine what would happen next. She might tell them to leave or ask them to stay. Say she couldn’t do this or demand time to think things over. Keep it together, man, or lose it for good.

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“I feel a headache coming on and I think you’re giving it to me, Tristan. A little less contemplation, a little more faith in her, if you please. And me. You can stare a hole through Danny’s picture but he’s still not coming back, you know.” He forgot. At times, as when he’d made love to Lin last night, he sometimes managed to forget that what he was looking at, Alex saw too. When Tristan spotted Lin padding out of the bedroom in her barely there nightwear, it made him forget about food or his qualms and start to crave a totally different sort of delicacy. Lin’s face lit up in amusement as she stared at the pralines and the huge muffuletta sandwich oozing cold cuts, cheese and olive salad set on the kitchen bar. “That’s breakfast? You truly have been homesick, haven’t you? If I manage to eat even a fourth of that, we’ll call it brunch.” “After last night’s workout, anything less would be a light snack.” Tristan chuckled and pulled out a chair for her.

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Chapter Six Every morning Alex ran the streets of New Orleans with Tristan as his map and compass. Every day he walked with Lin as his guide, getting acquainted with the city’s many different faces, absolutely enthralled by the different facets of Lin. This was what Tristan had meant when he’d tried to explain to him why he loved and admired her so much and Alex was beginning to understand the fascination. She gave him a crash course on the city in topics ranging from architecture to Zydeco music. She told stories with flare, talked knowledgably and spoke with conviction about the things she cared about. And when Tristan lay down next to her at night, pulled her into his arms, wearing nothing but a raging hard-on…when Lin burrowed closer to make love with him in the dark, it was all he could do not to rise against Tristan and wrestle him for control. He was trying to give them time and space, but the air in that particular space was starting to reek with male heat and frustration. His. Day by day it got harder for him to get up and run. More and more every day he looked forward to the moment they stepped out to walk instead. The city seduced him into calming down. Lin seduced him into wanting to stay close by her side, where he listened to her, watched her, wallowed in her. It wasn’t Tristan flowing through him, it was Lin. Force of habit got him up the first few mornings waking up next to her. By the time he had to fly out, it would be down to force of will, he thought, helping her round up the New Orleans-style picnic of jambalaya and beer she’d taken him on. Lin told him all that was missing was jazz, but with the annual summer festival coming up, he would soon get a good taste of that too. “Does she walk everywhere?” “Pretty much.” 76

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“And you let her? You think that’s wise?” “This isn’t Kabul. And she’s not as defenseless as you think.” “You taught her self-defense?” “Yes, Dad, I’ve taught her plenty.” “Think out loud, you two. There’s no one around. Or is it a private conversation?” “We’re discussing your safety.” “Really? The only threat to my safety or sanity is two bossy males with more testosterone than good sense. Don’t you dare treat me like a child.” “Tristan wouldn’t dream of it. I wouldn’t dream of it. But I will be teaching you some krav maga.” “Hit first, ask questions later?” “My favorite game.” “Will you take a breather on the macho bull already? Who the hell are you and what did you do to Major Rifkin?” “I’ll send out a search party as soon as you take her by the hand. You’re dying to.” “I don’t want to put her in an awkward position. She’s supposed to be grieving, not dating.” “And she can’t take solace in the arms of another man?” “She wouldn’t. Not this soon.” Alex contemplated the wisdom of telling Tristan where he could shove his Victorian morals and custodial attitude toward Lin. She was a big girl, living in the twenty-first century. Tristan had been gone for months now, and to his family and friends he was gone forever. Alex decided to cut Tristan some slack now, take it up later and concentrate on Lin instead. “Lin seems very passionate. Definitely smart.” “And open. Oh and intuitive too. Loving and loyal to a fault.” “What’s her fatal flaw then?” 77

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“She’s taken a shine to you?” “No seriously.” “That she’s loving and loyal to a fault. She doesn’t give up on the people or the things she believes in. Be advised, Major. I have never seen it happen.” “Adamant. I get that. And is there any way to win with her?” “Give in? Give in and you could be given everything.” Funny he would say that, Alex thought bitterly. Unfuckingbelievable Tristan couldn’t see he wasn’t really practicing what he preached. It was Tristan who had a hard time giving in and giving Alex more leeway with Lin. He wanted more control, not the feeling he was only a means to an end. Tristan was thrilled to be back home with his wife. Lin was more than happy to have him in her life and in their bed. In their readymade relationship, where did that leave Alex besides confused? For a man who had decided to take things one day at a time, Alex found himself wondering if Lin’s grandmère Marguerite owned a crystal ball. He would have loved to take a peek. Uncertainty didn’t suit him as well as it used to. Half measures sure as hell never would. Yet all he felt every time he gave Tristan control over his body so he could have Lin was a nagging uneasiness he had signed his life away with no guarantee of happiness and that he was being asked to accommodate others without being given much in return. He wasn’t in the habit of lying to himself either. It wasn’t all he felt, being close to Lin. He had enjoyed every fuck they had shared. Getting to know Lin’s body, letting her get accustomed to his while husband and wife adjusted and reconnected. He had managed to keep from rising against Tristan and had been the poster boy of patience and understanding. Was he eligible for sainthood yet?

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More like martyrdom, Alex thought sourly. He wasn’t confused, not really, only pissed he no longer had total control over his destiny. Wasn’t that what every man wanted? Wasn’t that what Tristan was trying to do with Lin—keep the reins to himself? He wasn’t bitter either—he was horny. Tristan giving him a taste of Lin had been like trying to put out fire with gasoline. And it was getting to him. Would it always be like this? Just a taste with Tristan’s permission? Only moments of having her all to himself when he knew it wouldn’t be enough, only making him want her more? Every man had a breaking point. That much he knew for sure. Alex had the disturbing feeling he would soon find his.

***** Lin sat on the bed and tried to focus on the book she was reading. Anything pertaining to her research projects usually held her interest with ease. Now she stared at her phone in fascination, as though it held the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. It had become the center of hers while Tristan and Alex were gone. They were her brief but sweet wake-up call in the morning and her long and winding evening entertainment. Alex had assured her he wasn’t missing anything important businesswise but Lin wasn’t sure she believed him. All she could do was trust him and he was doing his best to build up and bolster that trust with every call. It was evident from the specific questions he asked, Tristan had briefed him well. It made her feel as if she were talking to an old friend she had lost touch and had to catch up with and he was more than happy to answer any questions she had. Lin asked him to stop her if he felt he was being interrogated but he never did. What he could tell her about his job—past and future—he assured her he did. He talked lovingly about his sister’s family and longingly about sports that had been on hold for too long that he couldn’t wait to pick up.

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She had told him she might need all the help he could give while kiteboarding, but he made it sound like so much fun she had promised she’d try anything once. It had led to the only sexual reference either had made so far, when Alex had made her promise she would extend the adventurous spirit to contact sports all around. Lin had gotten the instant and distinct feeling he wasn’t talking about the krav maga he had promised to teach her. But he had already made love to her, hadn’t he? Tristan had made her feel as though she had never lost him. Alex made her feel as though she had always known him. But they were not one and the same. And she was only one woman. How could she ever be enough for both? Tristan had been solid ground, tangible, real. Now he was as indefinable as air and the man who had brought him back to her, a man who for some reason still roamed free as water, who all but bled the intimidating spirit of a beast who would never be tamed, was to be her rock. She missed Tristan terribly but she was starting to miss Alex too. Tristan had brought him to her, wanted them to get close, to get to know each other. So he could be with you again. So she would be Tristan’s again. Was there disloyalty in wanting to become Alex’s too, and not only for the purpose of being reunited with her husband? Lin closed the book and put it down, closed her eyes and dug a little deeper into the bed. The ringing cell brought her back to life, saving her from ruminating on Tristan’s death and all the aftermath. Hearing Alex’s voice had a soothing effect, or maybe it was hearing Tristan’s words. They talked about their day, the men making her feel at ease until the conversation got oddly flighty. Then it got positively frisky. “What are you wearing?” “Tristan!” “What? I’m done pretending we don’t have phone sex, chérie, so answer the question and let me love you a little over the lines.” 80

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“I don’t know.” “You don’t know what you’re wearing?” “Stop that.” “You stop playing possum and answer the question. We’ll take it from there. So are you decent, Lin?” “In this heat, not really.” “Sounds like you’re all set. You know you want to. You know I’ll make it worth your while.” “Only if you do the same.” “Of course I will.” “What’s on is coming off now.” “Good girl. Get comfortable while I do the same, okay? Are you getting comfortable and ready for me, honey?” “Yeah. Come lie beside me and face me, Tristan. Let me touch you.” “I’m all yours. Where do you want to touch me, Lin?” “I want to touch your handsome face. Run my hand over your brow, down your temple and your cheek, that strong jaw of yours. I want to rub my thumb over that luscious mouth, over those lips you’re licking nervously.” “Nervously? I’m not nervous, honey.” “Oh yes you are, baby. You’re not sure what I want from you and you’re nervous as hell. You’re not sure if it’s only kisses and cuddling I want or something more as I push my hand into your hair and draw you closer to kiss you deep. You’re nervous that kiss is all I want.” “Want to know what I want, Lin?” “What do you want, baby?” “I want you on your back, right now.”

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“You can’t take over, not yet.” “I’m not taking over. I’m only giving you what you want. What you need. Let me give it to you, honey.” “So you push me on my back while I kiss you.” “I’m kissing you back. I kiss you back while I take you under me, let you feel all of me on you for a second or two.” “I love the feel of it, Tristan. All that weight, all that power, so damn big and strong, it’s so sexy. You’re so damn sexy, baby.” “You’re the hottest thing on earth to take it so willingly, honey. Everything I want to give you. I keep kissing you while I ease up on you. You hold me tight for a while, you don’t want to let go but you have to. I need to kiss you all over so you’ll just have to, Lin.” “Okay, but I need to touch you too, Tristan.” “So touch me while I put my hands and mouth on you.” “I love your mouth on me. I love your mouth on my breasts. Kiss my breasts, baby, please.” “My hand is going down your side. You think I’m going for that tiny waist of yours but you’re wrong. I’m going for those curvy hips, the cheek of your ass, as much as I can get my hands on while my mouth goes for your breasts. Your nipples are hard for me, aren’t they?” “So hard. My breasts are tight from the need to be touched. You can’t believe it.” “Oh but I do. I let go of your ass and hips and take that globe in my hand and it’s so fucking tight to the touch, so damn inviting I have to taste it. ” “Put your mouth on me, just like that, oh god Tristan, just like that.” “I’m licking at that tiny bead but you want more. You push into my mouth, into my hand, so I draw you into my mouth. And I suck. I suck that nipple until you cry out and I have to let go. I have to let go because you’re ready to come while I suck you.”

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“Don’t let go, please…” “You promise to suck me next if I’ll just let you come but I don’t. We’re not done, Lin. You’re not done.” “I’m not?” “Not even close. I let go of your breast and you’re panting. You’re flushed and beautiful but are you wet?” “You have to ask?” “I think I need to check for myself so I put my hand between us. Your belly quivers as I pass it, you can’t control it. You can hardly control your breath.” “And you can control yours?” “Not hardly, honey. I lose mine when my fingers touch your pussy. You’re radiating heat, Lin, and you’re soaked. I don’t have to look at your juicy cunt to know you’re dripping wet because you’re all over my fingers. I slip a finger between your slit and you jerk. I touch your clit and you can’t hold still. You love it, you want it. You want more, so I lift my hand to add another finger and slip them between your lips, rub them over you. You jerk against my hand again. What do you want, Lin?” “I want those fingers inside me, both of them.” “And if I add a third?” “Two, three, just do it to me.” “So hot, Lin. So fucking wet and impatient I won’t last, honey. I won’t last if you don’t.” “Take me then. Don’t use your fingers on me, use your cock. You know you want to, Tristan. I want you to.” “Say it.” “Don’t tease. Do it.” “Say it, Lin. What do you want?” “I want you to fuck me. Right now, dammit.” 83

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“Open up for me then. Let me see how wet you are, honey.” “I want you in my hand, Tristan.” “Only to guide me, okay? Put your hand on me and show me heaven, Lin. Yeah, that’s it, nice and slow. Take me in, honey. Take all of me nice and easy.” “Feels so good, baby. So hard for me, so damn hot you’re like heated iron inside me, Tristan. Let me feel you move inside me.” “Damn, you’re sweet and tight around me. I can’t think about you taking me. I won’t last. So wet, Lin, so juicy on my cock as I fuck you.” “Keep going, Tristan. Look at my face. Imagine how much I want you. See how much I’m enjoying you?” “And what is Alex doing? I think he misses you, Lin. He’s been cranky as hell.” “Really?” “Really. He’s either grumpy or quiet and neither is like him at all. Something’s wrong with him, chérie, and I think I know how to help make it right.” “You don’t say.” “I do too. I think he needs you as bad as I do. Give him something to do, Lin, before he drives me crazy. You’re driving both of us crazy. So what is he doing? While I’m slowly moving inside you, what is Alex doing?” “He’s kissing me.” “On the mouth?” “No. He’s kissing my neck, nipping me below the ear, behind it.” “Tell me how it feels.” “He smells like a day in the sun, like a dip in the ocean. His skin is so warm he’s like the sun on my skin too and he tastes like saltwater, like deep-sea diving. He sprinkles kisses on my neck then licks at it for a while, slow and tender. His breath is heat on my skin, his tongue raspy. One second he’s making me shiver, the next he’s sucking on me, drawing on me hard where my neck meets my shoulder. He says he 84

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doesn’t want it to show but he wants me to remember what he did to me. Who marked me.” “He’s not hurting you, is he?” “God no. He’s kissing it better now, easy and gentle.” “Where are his hands, Lin? While he kisses you, what is he doing with his hands?” “He caresses my hair and cheek with one hand for a moment. He plays with my earlobe while he licks and nibbles at the other. He flicks at the lobe with his tongue then sucks at it. He wants me to imagine him doing it to my clit. ” “And are you? Imagining his tongue and mouth on your pussy while I fuck you?” “Uh-huh.” “What is his other hand doing?” “He slips it between my breasts. He opens his hand on me as he goes down my chest. I feel his fingers almost touching my nipples as he grazes past them. He’s teasing me. Tell him he’s a terrible tease.” “Do you want his hand or his mouth on your breasts?” “No, I want his mouth on mine and his hand to keep going. I want him to show me with his fingers how he would have teased my clit with his tongue.” “It’s not the same, honey.” “I know but I want that big hand on me. I want his mouth on mine and his hand on my pussy while you start to fuck me a little harder. Would you do that for me, Tristan, pick it up a little? Just a bit harder, baby, when he puts his hand on me?” “And is his hand on you now?” “He stopped to caress my belly and hips. His touch is so damn light it’s making me nuts. Tell him to stop teasing me and touch me like he means it, like he did when he marked my neck.” “Shouldn’t you tell him yourself?” “Maybe I should. I just don’t know if I can.” 85

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“Why not, honey?” “What if he doesn’t want to play?” “Did you listen to one word I said?” “Baby, he could be moody for any reason.” “Being horny gets me that way, Lin. Tristan’s never seen me this horny because I don’t think I’ve ever had it this bad. I’m teasing? You two sure as hell aren’t helping. You’re only making it worse.” “So you want in?” “Hell yes, I want in. Did you mean it, Lin? Would you want me to mark you like that? Is that what Tristan used to do?” “No. I mean, I meant it, but I don’t think he ever marked me.” “But you imagined I would enjoy doing it to you?” Alex asked. “I imagined I would enjoy you doing it,” she replied. “So my hand is going down your body while I’m kissing you. And am I enjoying kissing you?” “I don’t know. Are you?” “Very much, angel. A lot. You have an infinitely kissable mouth I wouldn’t mind attending to for a week and a half but the rest of you is crying for some attention too, isn’t it? Especially that spot between your thighs, that little pearl Tristan has made all swollen and tender with his fucking. How does it feel to have him gliding inside you, his cock bare inside your hot little pussy?” “It feels like heaven, Alex. So good.” “Are you gripping him tight, Lin? Making him mad with the need to come inside you, right now?” “He’s making me crazy too. I want him to fuck me harder. I need him to fuck me harder, Alex.”

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“Not before I put my hand on you, remember. Would you like my hand on you now, Lin? My fingers on your clit as he starts to pump nice and deep?” “Oh yeah.” “I’m moving my hand to touch you now, angel. I start to kiss you deeper as Tristan begins to fuck you harder like you wanted him to, so damn hard you’re moaning into my mouth. But I want to hear you scream. I’m going to put my hand on you and I’m going to make you scream. His name, my name, I don’t care. We don’t care, so don’t think about it, just feel. Feel how horny you’re making us, how much we need to be with you, Lin. Let us hear how much you need to be with the both of us too.” “Oh god, yes.” “You’re so damn wet, chérie, I can’t believe it. Am I fucking you deep enough now? Can you feel me, honey?” Tristan took over. “Uh-huh.” “I love seeing his hands on you, Lin, his mouth. He’s making you wet for me, so damn slick for me I’m fighting for my breath here. I need to come but I want to see you come with me, with him. I want you to come on his hand. Would you do that for me, chérie? Come all over my dick and his hand?” “Yes.” “So let me see him touch you some more. Tell me what he’s doing to you, Lin.” “I can’t. Oh god, I can’t, Tristan. You’ve got me so close. So close with your dick and his fingers I can’t…” “What are you doing to her, Alex?” “I’m kissing her hard on the mouth, as hard as you’re driving into her pussy now, and she loves it. She can’t talk, she can barely breathe because she’s so close now. My mouth is hard on her but my fingers are barely touching her. She’s tight around you, isn’t she, tight and swollen, like her clit. One good flick at that puffy bud and she’s a goner. Can you feel how close she is, rippling around you as your dick starts to throb

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with the need to come? She can feel it too. She’s holding her breath now, arching, writhing beneath my hand, so fucking close all I need is to add some pressure, roll my finger, rub on that clit just a little while you push deep into her pussy, so deep—” Lin screamed. She wasn’t just writhing and arching as Alex imagined she would be, she was screaming. Not Tristan’s name, not Alex’s, but both. All they would hear over the phone would be her hoarse cries, but in her mind she was shouting out for them both. Shouting out for Tristan who had fucked her so deeply, for Alex who had pleasured her so sweetly she was trembling, drenched in sweat. She imagined Tristan’s cum filling her, the heated flush of seed inside her while Alex’s hand caressed her clit lightly once more, soothing and tender, as his mouth on hers now was. She had screamed into his mouth and he had taken it. And when Tristan had started coming, when Alex had put his fingers on her clit and pushed her into orgasm, she had thrashed in their hands and they had held her tight, never letting go, never relenting. Lin imagined the men on the other end of the line were as spent as she was, and she hoped as satisfied because she certainly wasn’t complaining. Tristan had promised to make it worth her while and he had delivered. He had said Alex wanted her too and he had proved it. And if either man knew which of them had made her this replete, this complete, their guess was as good as hers. They had both been equal partners in it and Lin knew it. And when they got back home, Lin wondered if they would be willing to make the fantasy a reality. “That was fucking amazing, chérie. You made me come in my hand while you came on his, and you should see Alex. I don’t think he’s going to bite my head off after all, he’s too damn beat to move a muscle.”

“Speak for yourself. I was just getting warm.” “I want to be bare inside her soon. Can you imagine, being bare inside her?” 88

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Alex could imagine a lot but that one took some thinking. He’d only been in one long relationship that had pretty much decided him against longer relationships. He had fucked only one woman without a condom. He didn’t miss her but he sure as hell missed the sensations. So yeah, he could imagine what it would feel like to be bare inside Lin. When they got back to her with the blood and paperwork that proved they could, they would. “Soon, Tristan. As long as it’s okay with Lin then soon.” “I want you to imagine something while we’re away, chérie. I want you to imagine what it will feel like to fuck with nothing between you and me, nothing between you and him. Think about that while we’re away and when we come back, you’ll get to feel it, honey. Don’t you wanna feel it? I can’t wait.” “And Alex? What does Alex say?” “I don’t know. I can’t make out one coherent word from all that groaning.”

***** Tristan made sure they called her every day but took care not to take the discussion below the waist again. As amazing as the phone sex had been and as much as he would have wanted to do it every single night, he feared it would make it harder for Lin to face Alex again. She had as much as admitted fantasizing about sex with both of them. Alex had admitted to being hard for her in an even straighter manner. He sure had been a much happier camper after engaging in phone sex. And Tristan had coaxed them, tempted them to do it, to give in to the fantasy and the need. Too much of a good thing might turn out bad in the end and he didn’t want that. He wanted them conscious of those thoughts. He wanted to instill that fantasy in them, the curiosity rising in Lin and the need rising in Alex, egging them on and driving them closer to each other. What he didn’t need was to take the consciousness too far on the phone only to have Lin feel self-conscious when they met again face-to-face. The possibility was enough for now, he decided, the hint of what could be.

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There was no shame in what they had shared. Tristan hoped she knew that. But she might start thinking about things they had discussed before getting married, things they wouldn’t tolerate from each other, like lies or deceit. Or infidelity. Tristan knew she might think about it because jealousy raised its ugly, maddening head when he thought of Alex bare inside her. No other man had taken her like that. She had never been with anyone else. Tristan had thought that with Danny he could somehow take it, look into the mirror and almost imagine seeing himself. Watch Lin looking at Danny and believe she saw him too. Maybe he had been delusional. Maybe it would have been as hard to let her be with Danny, but Tristan would never know. What he knew for certain was that he needed to get over himself and focus on the mission at hand, getting Lin and Alex to not only warm for each other but to burn. Alex seemed to be closing in on the boiling point and Lin didn’t seem reluctant at all. Nothing like good old-fashioned sex to speed things up, and by the time they got back to her, they should be all clear for some unadulterated skin on skin. He would dare Alex to walk away from that. He would dare Lin to say she could live without the pleasure they could bring her. Tristan dared himself to let another man have her as only he’d had her and live with the consequences. Lin was innocent, Alex owed him nothing but he owed them both all the love and lust he felt them capable of finding together. Maybe then they would forgive him. Maybe then he would be able to forgive himself.

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Chapter Seven Alex steered them toward Lin with veiled thoughts. So damn private, Tristan thought they could only mean one thing. “You’re dwelling on the F word again.” “Speak for yourself. I can think about other things besides sex,” Alex huffed. “Talk about a Freudian slip. Not around her you can’t. The word I meant is ‘forever’. If you won’t talk to me, how am I supposed to know where the three of us stand?” “Where’s this coming from, Tristan? We’re getting to know each other. Isn’t that what you wanted?” “Guilty as charged. I was only wondering what you’re hiding.” Alex was silent for a moment, deep breaths making his massive chest heave. Tristan had the distinct feeling he was about to find out. “I’m nervous.” “Oh. Oh… That must have hurt. Saying that. Never thought I’d live to see the day.” “Yeah, I stop the press. She could stop traffic.”

Tristan left him alone and Alex would have thanked him except there wasn’t time. He needed every second to regroup. The irony wasn’t lost on him. This was how Tristan must have felt the first time they had driven through Marigny together. Alex had teased him about it. He’d thrown in a stupid joke, some dirty remark. Then he’d met Lin and been given one royal smack upside his head after the other. He’d known she’d be pretty, even sexy. The picture he’d snatched from Danny testified to that. The fantasies he’d whipped up with the photo had been better than any skin mag. But he hadn’t had a clue how beautiful and achingly desirable she’d be in the flesh. How engaging, how simply captivating.

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Tristan had closed up shop after the phone-sex session as if nothing had happened. The man played dirty, Alex decided, since he didn’t believe for a second Tristan didn’t dwell on the F word on every other damn call to Lin. It was all he could think of when his mind wasn’t on business. Things thrown around during sex over the lines. The teasing, the hints, the all-out promises of what would happen when they got back. Tristan didn’t mention the F word again, only let it hang in the air, let it tighten Alex’s balls and mess with his brain until the reasonable, cool-headed and calculating man Alex had thought he was had gone missing in action. In his place was a stranger, a man who looked and sounded suspiciously like Tristan, dangled the other F word in his face and asked him if he understood where he wanted it all to end, what he had promised Lin. Forever. Killing the occasional but inevitable loneliness attack with a warm and willing body had seemed like enough. Women came easily to him. Hell, they came on to him, all he had to do was choose. If that wasn’t the ultimate male fantasy his friends didn’t know what was, and they ribbed him ruthlessly for being such a favorite of the sex gods. Release had been easy to find but that was exactly what it had started to feel like. Catch and release, catch and release, over and over and over again. He could not have imagined seriously dating any of his recent bed partners. He would never have taken them home to meet his sister’s family or introduce them to his friends as his partner. They temporarily released him of some terrible longing but never left him pining. He didn’t fall in love. He had started to believe that maybe he wasn’t meant to, that maybe he wasn’t cut out to be someone else’s for life. Not like Tristan had always talked about being Madeleine’s and how she belonged to him. Now Tristan dangled her in front of him, the most seductive and tasty bait yet, asking him to join in, to fit in one minute—then pulling her away and telling him to fuck off the next.

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There was only so much a man could take. They were pulling him ten ways at once and Alex was about ready to start pulling his hair and the clothes off her and to hell with what Tristan thought or wanted as long as Lin wanted it. It wasn’t all nervousness he felt, or uncertainty. Excitement and anticipation coursed through him as well when he thought about seeing Lin again, holding her, kissing her. But Tristan seemed to want to have his cake and eat it once again. He had also given Alex all kinds of ideas to play with on his free time, starting with the possibility of the F word entering his vocabulary. Tristan could dish it out, tempt a man with a fantasy and a fantasy woman, but could he take it, make it real? There was only one way to find out. He would make Tristan lead by example. If he wanted Alex jumping off a bridge with no certainty of what would happen next, he would have to do it as well and give in. The man owed him as much. Give in and you could be given everything.

***** Lin kept readjusting her dress as if there were another way to wear it. She had hunted for something to complement her body type and thought she had found the right piece. It was intense in color but light of fabric. It was tight around her breasts and waist but flowed free to her knees. She needed the added support of feeling comfortable in her own skin because she was ready to crawl out of it. Tristan would be at her door any second now with Alex looming larger and looking infinitely better than she remembered. She would hear his sultry voice live and see him, feel Tristan as she had dreamed for days and nights and they would light her up without even trying. Prepare to burn was all Lin could do as she tied the sashes around her middle a little bit tighter and hoped they would do away with the knots inside. The doorbell rang.

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Lin looked through the peephole. Nope, it hadn’t helped her one bit. The effect of seeing Alex standing there smiling was no less devastating than it had been the first time she had set eyes on him. Knots. Lin held her midriff. A rope full of Gordian knots. And her personal Alexander the Great looked like a man ready to sever each and every one of them. She turned the knob. “Madeleine.” The use of her full name startled her, along with his looks. He looked crispy cool in camel-colored linen pants, a beige shirt to match, no doubt tailored for such a perfect fit. Alex stepped in. And presented her with another surprise. One perfect green orchid stem stood in a clear glass cylindrical vase, its bottom lined with leaves. It was unlike any flower she had ever been given but so was the giver. And it looked made for her Chinese cabinet by the door. “Thank you, Alex. It’s beautiful. Quite original. Unique.”

His thoughts on her exactly as he’d gone in search of the flower she had brought to his mind on their first encounter. She set it down and stole him a quizzical glance. Was it so hard for her to believe he remembered all the details about her home, and without Tristan’s help? Would she believe it if he told her that, in his mind, he hadn’t been away from her for the past week but here beside her? That everything about her plain fascinated him, not only her beauty and her body but what she surrounded herself with and felt passionate about? “You’re welcome, angel. Or should I say the devil in disguise.” He let his eyes wander from her face and upswept hair to the tomato or terracotta red or whatever diabolically desirable color she was wearing. It was hot. She was even more so. “Is that what you’re wearing?” She blinked, nonplussed, once, twice, before slanting her deep greens menacingly. “Apparently yes. Why? Too plain Jane for you, Alex? I know we’re not an even match but I won’t have you patrolling what I wear.” 94

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“That’s not what I was implying. At all.” Unable to resist the pull any longer, only waiting for Tristan to cut in, he placed his hands on her hips and tugged her closer. Lin didn’t resist him, only refused to touch him back. “Tristan, baby. Would you inform Alex that if this is one of his quirky compliments, I don’t get it.” “Hot damn, woman! I can’t wait to flaunt you. But how can I enjoy showing you off,” he added in his most wicked come-hither tone, “when I’ll be busy fighting off every bozo in town and worse.” Alex saw her face soften. Her hands finally rose to rest on his arms. “It’s just a dress.” “Believe you me, it’s not.” He planted a light, lingering kiss below her right earlobe. Lin shivered. When he straightened to look at her, she had closed her eyes. Content in the knowledge that he wasn’t the only one happy to see the other, he took her hand, saw Lin open her eyes once more, and stepped out into the night.

***** The men were a full-on attack on Lin’s already over-sensitized senses, heady from the sights, sounds and smells of the festivities, giddy from merely being close to him, to them. Lin let her eyes wander the street, alive with voices and music, dizzying for all the colors and activity, and drew steadying breaths. She tried to concentrate on the rhythm and pick it up. Concentrate on that one thing and calm down while doing so. She had no reason to be nervous. This was Tristan. It wasn’t as if she were on a first date. Except she had dressed for one and she didn’t feel half as relaxed as he looked. Or rather, as Alex looked. Alex, who was standing beside her and who now turned to look at her, holding her eyes in an unfaltering gaze. It made her hips stop swaying and start tingling. It felt like seduction, as it had from the first second he’d unleashed all his raw appeal and masculinity on her.

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He moved to stand before her. She let him wrap his arms around her waist and gather her close. Lin willed her hands to climb the impressive strength of his arms to rest on sheltering shoulders. She stood eye level with the chiseled ridges of his upper chest peeking from his slightly open shirt. He looked like a fortress. That’s what Tristan had been to her. That’s what Alex seemed to be. Strong and dependable and safe. She had to tear her eyes away from the visual display of blatant maleness when his embrace tightened around her and he pressed her head against his heart. She could hear the thunder of his excitement against her ear, incredulous she could have such an effect on a man as cool and collected as Alex. It could all be Tristan resonating through him, but Lin realized she didn’t want it to be Tristan’s reaction—or not only his. “I missed you, Lin.” He enunciated the words so calmly and clearly, she couldn’t quite be sure which man had spoken. “I missed you too.” She knew how it sounded, how she was playing safe to make it sound as if she answered whichever man had said it, but she wished both men meant it because she certainly did. Lin tipped her head to look at him. His expression was closed and guarded as he kept his eyes on hers. The alarming thought that it was Alex who had spoken to her and that Tristan might somehow be punishing him for his words gripped her. “Will someone please talk to me?” she all but growled, not bothering to hide the fear in her eyes or the desolate edge in her voice. “To PDA or not to PDA?” Tristan asked and puckered up, lifting his brows pensively. What? She wanted to punch him for teasing her, for messing with her mind and playing on her heartstrings.

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“Is that some marital slang?” Lin heard Alex ask, his voice considerably lower than Tristan’s so as not to draw too much attention to their discussion. With the ruckus around them, she doubted anyone could hear them. It helped her relax a notch and get in the game of teasing Alex instead. “Baby, he’s never heard of PDA.” “Oh that’s bad. That is just too sad, isn’t it, honey?” “Should we show him?” She badly wanted to kiss both of them, but Lin could guess what her ever-thoughtful Tristan would say. “You know I’d love to. But not here.” “It’s not PDA if we’re not in public,” she coaxed him, drawing her lower lip between her teeth. Tristan sounded frustrated. The front of his slacks all but screamed it, a very impressive erection pressing into her belly as he held her close. She licked her lips and stared at his mouth for long seconds, letting him know he was in trouble for patronizing her. “Don’t let him move, Alex.” Lin trailed the seam of his shirt with one hand, making her way down from his collar to his waist. Stopping to make sure he was paying attention, she kept going to touch the front of his slacks briefly, to feel how damn hard her little dare had made him. She quickly rounded her hand to the small of his back, the one resting on his shoulder clutching his neck. “Now that we’ve got the public display part covered, let’s see if we can’t do something about the affection bit too.” “Do not kiss her, Alex.” “I will if you won’t.” “This isn’t right.” “Where I’m standing, it’s pretty fantastic.” Tristan sensed Alex rising as she pulled him closer. 97

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“Back off, Alex.” He took her face in his hands. “Not a chance. Better join the PDA, ASAP, man.”

Tristan let Alex have his kiss, let Lin have her moment. He steeled himself to keep his passion from stealing his mind and Alex from taking over completely. “PDA, huh?” Alex sighed, obviously grateful for the lesson. Tristan wished he would ease up. Lin looked far too satisfied doing outdoors what Tristan wished she would have reserved for him—and indoors. He’d wanted them to burn for one another. It was him sizzling slowly to ashes every time they touched. Was there any way to win? Was there any way for him to keep both his wife and his sanity or would he be handing both over to Alex one day soon? “Tristan’s trying to force me to let go. Worried about your good name again. Yeah, I can almost see the headlines. Area woman branded with scarlet letter for kissing Yummy Yankee. Man was quoted saying, The voice in my head made me do it.” “She was kissing me too, you ass. ‘Yummy Yankee’?” “No, she was kissing me. You can’t keep inviting me in one minute then tell me to take a hike the next.” “Have I?” Lin asked. “I wasn’t talking about you. I meant Tristan. And don’t think I don’t understand why, because I do. I don’t doubt it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do. Give another man permission to touch your wife when in the past, had you caught her in bed with your XO, there would have been blood. I’d have been a dead man. Instead you’ve been feeding her to me like you were trying to build an addiction.” “And how’s it working?” Tristan asked. “Like a drug,” Alex admitted. Tristan should have been elated to hear it. He wasn’t sure what to say. “Do I hear a ‘but’ coming my way, Tristan?” 98

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“But I know you, Alex.” “You don’t know shit about me.” “I know this isn’t what you pictured for yourself or you would have married ten times over already,” Tristan said. “This isn’t what you pictured either but here we are. So I’d never met anyone to be gutsand-glory passionate about like you had. We should all be so lucky. What you did I don’t think I ever could have. I would’ve rather let Lin get on with her life than give the keys to mine to someone else. In that sense you’re a braver man than I am. You need to be in control. But so do I—and I don’t think I can do this.”

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Chapter Eight Tristan would have collapsed had Alex not stood tall and determined. He wanted to howl. He had failed. He had held back, held Alex back, and he had failed. Alex wanted out. Alex wanted out because Tristan hadn’t been able to let him in. I’m going to lose her. All for nothing. I’m going to lose her for good. “I can’t be your third. I won’t be a sequel in your story. So you’re gonna do something for me. You will show me I can be an equal or there is no story. I’m not one for half measures. You can’t expect me to commit to this if you won’t. Equal share, equal partners.” God, Alex had almost given him a heart attack and he had almost given Alex one in return. “I wanna do a little test,” Alex said. “I don’t think I like the sound of this, Major.” “And if we don’t pass?” Lin asked. “We practice,” Alex promised wickedly. “Will I like it?” “Do what I ask, angel, and by this time tomorrow, I promise you’ll be begging for more. We’re having summer-fest sex.” “And what is summer-fest sex, Alex?” “Don’t know exactly yet but we’re having it. Real simple rules though. Tristan’s going to let me have you, as myself, and he’s going to join in. He’s going to let you enjoy it, all of it, whatever I want to do to you and whatever you want from me, from either one of us. No thinking who you’re with, no demanding to choose. Both of us pleasuring you, as equals. What I want is twice as hard but twice the pleasure.”

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“As in…” Lin’s eyes went wide. “Both Tristan and I making love to you. At the same time.” Her eyes went wider. “You can do that?” “Wanna find out?” Alex asked. “And what does Tristan say?” She slanted her eyes in suspicion. “He’s busy trying not to come in my boxers. I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Oh god, yes,” she sighed against his lips before she took hold of his face again and kissed him wildly. He responded with a passionate hum as the kiss grew deeper and more demanding, both wanting everything the other would yield, pushing for more in an emotional swirl that threatened to consume all three of them whole. To Lin’s infinite disappointment he broke off the kiss. Only to take hold of her hand and drag her behind him and toward their block. “We need to get out of here before I take you against whatever support I can find and to hell with whoever’s watching.” Lin half-ran to keep up with him but the panting had nothing to do with fatigue. She hadn’t the faintest idea which man was now in command. It could still be Alex or it might be Tristan. And it could be both. Pure white-hot lust flushed through Lin. The thought was titillating and so very arousing. The thought of them taking her in turns or taking her together. It was bound to be more than any woman could take. She may only be one woman but Lin wanted it. And she wanted them. Both of them. Together or separate made no difference as long as she would belong to Tristan and Alex, as long as both men wanted her. Jerked to a stop in mid-motion, Lin found herself pressed against a lamppost that offered not light but a dark patch of privacy. His hands were in her hair, his mouth on her neck and chest in a heartbeat. “Take your panties off,” Alex commanded with a growl.

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“Here?” God, she hoped Tristan wasn’t thinking of what headlines that might make. “Right here, right fucking now.” His voice was no less feral, his hands already gathering her skirt. They had left the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter behind but Marigny wasn’t asleep yet. They were more likely to be caught making out in public than not. Oh god, who cared? Lin pushed her hands into the waistband of her panties and shoved them down. He held her up as she stepped out of them. Lin watched them disappear into his pocket, much more interested in everything else that made his slacks bulge. Without warning, Lin wrapped her fingers around his cock through the linen. He drew in a sharp breath and pressed against her again, hauling one knee up to his hip. She was open before him, her pussy bare, only the fabric of her dress between them. He yanked it out of the way. “Now,” his free hand moved between them, “I want Tristan to make sure mademoiselle Madeleine is in an adventurous mood…an amorous mood. Aroused and ready for the taking.” He wouldn’t… He did. Pushed his hand down to her mound, skated his fingers over her pussy. “No. I need to be very certain she wants this. Have you been thinking about it, sweetie? What we talked about on the phone? Being bare like this for us?” One finger pressed at her entrance. “Being fucked with nothing between us?” And pushed home. Lin would have jolted had there been anywhere to go. Caught between hard iron and hard man, she waited breathlessly for his next move. His finger wiggled inside her channel. “Very nice, Lin. Very nice indeed.”

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“Someone’s coming,” she gasped. She could hear them. Several voices closing in around the corner. He kissed her mouth briefly and gave her a lopsided grin. “With how wet you are, we’ll all be coming in no time.” They half-ran the last leg back home. “Race you up the stairs.” He winked at her. Finally at her door, Lin rummaged in her purse for the keys and fumbled with them as he positioned himself against her back. He fondled her hips and her waist, climbed all the way up to her breasts, where one hand lingered while the other took hold of her chin and turned her head to give him access to her exposed throat and neck. He licked at her, nibbled, ultimately giving her tiny bites that made her shiver and moan. “The door… I can’t,” she panted, ready to pass out if he didn’t let her go. Only after a torturous instant did he loosen his hold to take care of the keys and the door. He pulled her in and shoved the door shut behind them, not bothering with the locks or the lights. Going by feel until their eyes adjusted to the dusky indoors, Lin was on him in a second, pulling at his shirt and tearing at his belt. Impatience made her clumsy and he shoved her hands away to finish what she had started. Lin drank in the sight of him, his naked, wide chest and shoulders gleaming in the dim light as he shoved his slacks and boxers down. His cock bounced out, fully erect and so tempting she wanted to touch him again, to touch him properly and feel the heat and hardness of him. Extending her hand, Lin wrapped her fingers around him tightly. His cock distended in her hand and he let out a string of curses that made her chuckle in wicked delight. “Pull that skirt up,” he ordered. Letting go of his shaft, Lin lost all haste and reveled in his reactions. In a slow and seductive mode that turned his breathing rough while he toed off his shoes and undressed, she tugged at her dress and lifted the hem to expose her pussy for him.

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“Poor pussy looks like she’s in need of some TLC. What do you say, Tristan? Can you think of anything to make this tender little pussy feel better?” “A shower, to start with.” Alex winked at her knowingly and kissed her briefly. “A shower it is, Mr. Fortier.” “Mrs. Fortier.” Alex scooped her up and carried her with little effort into the bathroom. It was Lin’s legs that shook as he set her down. Delighted for the chance to look at him, all of him as she reached for the zipper at the low-riding back of her dress, Lin stripped languidly and ate him greedily with her eyes. “Do I pass?” he enquired, amused and aroused by her blatant stare. He had to be kidding. “You’re asking me?” she blurted. “Even bedrocks like me need a little reassurance now and then.” A rock did describe him quite perfectly, Lin thought in passing. He was all hard muscle and reliability, undeterred and unshakeable. She couldn’t believe she would make him vulnerable or insecure. “Tristan? Would you tell Mr. Most-Likely-To-Make-You-Part-With-Your-Panties here that his strength and his beauty make me wanna die just as sure as yours always has?” “Death by multiple orgasms doesn’t sound like a bad way to go. You two want to give it a try?” Alex wiggled his brows at her. Lin dropped the dress and stepped out of it, her eyes never leaving his. “You have no idea,” she whispered softly before reaching for the sliding door of the shower. She stepped in and started the shower and he crammed in with her to fill the space. With limited room to move, they kept close to one another and gloried in skin on skin as they lathered each other between gentle kisses. Alex’s erection, pressed hard against Lin’s belly, made her yearn to touch him again as she had before.

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She gathered more soap in her hand and started spreading it on his cock. Her fingers wrapped tightly around him, Lin worked up and down. His belly quivered. He hissed. “That’s enough. I’m good.” Lin didn’t let go until he slapped his hand on hers. “Stop it, Lin. I mean it. I want it in you. All of it.” He took hold of her wrists and smoothly lifted her hands up against the wall then secured them in his. “Our turn,” he rasped, letting one hand start a voyage down the length of her arm. He stopped to take hold of the back of her head and hold her in place for his kiss. And Lin surrendered willingly to him, to them. He moved his mouth in small increments across her cheek to nuzzle at her ear. “You are one hot woman, Lin, and we can’t get enough of you.” Unsure how to respond to the scorching words, Lin gave herself to his touch. His mouth nipped at her neck and collarbone before it stopped at her breasts, where he suckled and licked at her beaded nipples for long moments. He must have heard her low hum of pleasure, the demanding edge in it, because he let go before it was too late. Lin exhaled in disappointment. The tightness in her breasts had extended all the way to her pussy and he was teasing again. If there were multiple orgasms to be had, she could have started on those a moment ago. His mouth lifted back to hers, his hand kneading her hip. “Open your legs for me,” he ordered roughly. She did. With deft fingers he opened her lips and kept them open as two broad digits slowly entered her pussy. He pushed high inside only to pull out, press tight against her clit and rub ruthlessly. Lin cried out, jerking violently in his hold. He was such a terrible tease and with his particular brand of sensuous torture a little seemed to go a long way. She was close to coming again, so damn close, if he would only let her. “She’s not hurting, she’s enjoying herself, aren’t you? Tristan’s worried again, sweetie, worried I’m being too rough on you the way you’re bucking like a colt, making all those sharp sounds. Tell him it isn’t pain, it’s pleasure.” “Oh god,” Lin panted. “Don’t stop.” 105

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“And that’s our cue,” Alex said nonchalantly, easing the press on her clit to a more gentle caress. It was so good but it wasn’t enough to get her off. Lin wanted to scream. She wanted to shout in frustration, beg him for release. “Please, don’t stop. Make him put his fingers inside me, Tristan. Fuck me with your fingers. Please. Gimme something, anything,” Lin wheezed. “Oh angel, I promise you’ll be given everything.” His mouth was back on hers, nipping at her lips while he spread her open again. He stroked her swollen entrance. “Have you ever taken two cocks, Lin? Tristan says you haven’t. Not at the same time. I think summer-fest sex is all about trying something new.” He slipped his fingers back in. Lin clamped on him. “Stretching limits.” He added another. “Boldly going where none of us have gone before.” He began moving inside her. “Nice and easy, see? She’s definitely loving it. Feel how she’s creaming all over again, loving my fingers fucking her?” He bent the digits to rub against her G-spot. As if she had needed any more warming up. Lin thought she would melt and dissolve into the water. “You sure know how to approach a girl from the right angle, Mr. Rifkin. Where you got your sexpertise from―” “Is nowhere I’ll ever revisit,” he cut her off. “I’m glad you like it.” “Ooh I like it, Alex,” Lin panted as his fingers continued their slow torture inside her pussy. “How much, Lin? Do you more than like it?” he asked against her lips. “Too much, Alex. You might turn out to be six shades of bad for me.” He straightened to stare down at her, his eyes dazed with lust and something she couldn’t read. His hand let go of her wrists still pinned above her. The fingers inside her stilled then retreated. Gradually losing contact with his mouth and body, the sudden hollow feeling between her thighs, all made Lin want to shout again. For him, for more, forever.

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Confused, Lin felt helplessly unable to turn away from his heavy stare all the same. That was the only way in which he touched her now and she did not want to let go. Needing the connection, needing him, she stood motionless, head held high, her eyes never flinching or leaving his. Had she said something wrong? Had she blown it, spoiled it for him, for them? “I’m sorry.” Lin’s voice quivered with barely restrained emotion. He took her face in his hands and pressed the lightest of kisses on her lips. Then another. Then another more forceful, the next one even deeper before their contact was restored. His mouth demanded submission, his tongue sought entrance. Lin groaned into the kiss and opened her lips to welcome him. His body tensed, a sudden hardness beneath his silky, sleek skin. He let her mouth go with a gasp. “You don’t have to explain or apologize. And there’s no reason to be afraid, ever. About how you feel or about baring your soul. To either one of us. Tristan can’t make me love you or want you. But then again he doesn’t have to. You’re working on me all by yourself, Lin.” His voice was no less strained than his body as his rough baritone rumbled through her. Lin let the meaning of his solemn declaration seep in. Alex had not given her any reason to be afraid. Tristan had tried to hide his qualms and be patient when he must have been going out of his mind with jealousy and uncertainty. And Lin couldn’t deny that jealousy had begun to creep in to her too. The mere thought of Alex holding another woman as he held her now had the power to overthrow her. She did not own him. But you wish you did. You don’t want him to just want you. You want him to love you. And not only because Tristan probably wants it too. Lin clawed at her determination to give in wholeheartedly. She wanted to lose herself in the moment, in him, in the love they made. She needed to. She tried to breathe out the tension and breathe in his firmness and shelter. “Turn the shower off and open the door.” 107

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He continued to study her face as he did her bidding. They stepped out hand in hand. Lin reached for the towels below the counter, grabbed one and rubbed Alex’s shoulders and chest with it in slow circles. She descended to his abdomen and dried his hips as well, careful not to make contact with his cock, which pulsed in excitement, teasing her to touch. Seducing her to taste him as she had only dreamed of doing. Giving in to temptation, Lin flipped the towel around him and pressed herself against the heat and hardness of his shaft. He grumbled low in his chest and tried to take hold of her. “Oh no. You two will have to keep those all-powerful hands to yourselves for a while longer,” Lin said. His grunt made her grin. Lin dried his back and shoulder blades, or attempted to. The sheer size of him made it hard for her to reach around and all the way up. He made her feel tiny and feminine and fragile and she had never thought of herself that way. Alex made her feel all woman. Being in his presence was as intoxicating as being with Tristan had always been. Summer-fest sex or sex summer fest, they had her hooked. Lin brought the towel back between them and went on her toes to rub at his hair and neck. It was hardly fair one man would be given such a mane. His hair had the power to make her fingers itch with the need to bury them in those dark strands and stroke ’til he purred or growled or whatever big game cats such as him did when rubbed. Without breaking eye contact, caressing his outer thighs as she went down, Lin knelt. She loved the sight of his eyes going wide, anticipation and lust darkening the warm brown into a sinful black when she saw Alex in them, Tristan’s Amazon greens gliding into his gaze when she saw him. Lin leaned closer to his heavy cock and blew a heated breath over his tightened sac. Alex’s breathing turned ragged. She blew another

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one along the length of his shaft and he hissed. Without taking hold of him with her hands, Lin gave his balls a lash of her tongue. “Lin.” His voice was a growled warning. “Hush now and feel good for me, will you?” “Good? You’re a one-woman demolition crew.” Lin smiled wickedly at his admonition and flicked her tongue at him again. And again, at the base of his cock. Grazing him gently with her teeth here, giving him a lick there, she worked her way up his length, savoring the taste of clean man and masculine heat, his silky-smooth flesh, until she reached the crown. She wanted that cock in her mouth. She had fantasized about sucking on him, on both men, having her mouth tight on him as he’d had his lips all over her pussy. Yeah, Alex knew how to dish it out but could he take it too? Forced to touch him for a better angle, Lin encircled his length with one hand and marveled at the size of him. She pressed one last kiss to his sac and tilted her head to give the skin between his balls and ass a slow lick. She watched his stomach contract, his knees almost buckling as he widened his stance. Lin licked her lips as he watched her every move and expression intently, his breath a shallow pant. A droplet of pre-cum glistened on the tiny slit of his cock and Lin caught it with her tongue. She rolled it into her mouth and tasted him. “Yummy Yankee indeed. He tastes sweet. Like you, baby. I want to taste both of you. I want more.” Drawing a deep breath, Lin took the head of his cock past her lips and kept going. She didn’t care if Alex wanted easy or Tristan wanted fast. She wanted this, the feel of his length sliding slowly along her tongue and deep into her mouth. He touched her throat and Lin paused. Controlling her breath, she held him there then withdrew. Breathing steadily through her nose, she took him back into her mouth and took him deeper. Her eyes held him. Her mouth taunted him.

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“You taught her more than self-defense. I’m fucking her throat. I can’t believe this.” Alex couldn’t remember being so turned-on in his life. “Glad you like it. She loves it. I love her more.” Alex couldn’t remember wanting a woman as he now wanted Lin. He would have her tonight. He could have this every night. Her mouth on him, his cock down her throat, in her pussy, fucking her ass. She was obliterating him, undoing him with her lips and tongue when he’d set out to destroy every last remnant of doubt or fear in anyone’s mind that they could do this. Do this for each other, with each other, and still come out alive and intact. No covers, no dark, no illusions. Only this, only her and them, the three of them. She had to feel his climax building in her mouth, feel his internal muscles twitch on her tongue. He didn’t want her to stop. He wanted to come down her throat. He wanted to come inside her bare pussy. He wanted to feel her come all over his dick but not yet. Ah fuck, not yet. Disregarding her whimper, Alex pulled out gently, took hold of her shoulders and hauled her up against the full length of him. “Hold that thought. We’ll get back to that soon.” He smashed his mouth on Lin’s for a brief, scorching kiss that told her to forget about the blowjob for now and prepare for something else. “Hold on to me,” he said as he scooped her up behind the knees and started for the bedroom. “I can’t let Tristan make love to you before I’m done fucking you and I’m not done fucking you yet. You drive me crazy, Lin. And it feels so damn good, I swear it hurts.”

His raw and lustful confession thrilled Lin. Maybe it should have alarmed her a bit for all its intensity. It didn’t. Not even when he all but threw her on the bed. Not even when he shackled her hands in his and pinned them above her head. Not even when he

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pushed her legs apart with his and positioned himself between them. All she saw in his eyes was an unbridled lust to match hers.

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Chapter Nine “Will you just look at her, Alex?” “Would not be able to tear my eyes off if you ordered me to.” “Tristan said you’ve never tried double penetration.” “No,” she answered tentatively, but her eyes betrayed her, her pupils dilating, the black pooling over green. “But you’ve had anal sex?” “Yes.” “And you liked it?” God, he couldn’t wait to try it out with her. One step at a time. One thing and step at a time. “Baby, I love all kinds of sex.” “Good to know, Lin. ’Cause I’ll be tight inside you, tighter than Tristan’s ever been in your pussy and I’ll be torturing us all with that dildo he says you have tucked away in your bedside table, deep inside your ass.” “Oh god.” Alex could sense Tristan surfacing, her whisper apparently making him want to intervene. The man held back though, as acutely aroused as Alex was, as impatient and willing to see where she would let them take her. “If now’s not the right time, if you need to think about it, now’s the time to tell us. It’s meant to be good. It’s meant to give you pleasure. If we time it right, more pleasure than any of us has ever known.” “And how would you know if you’ve never done it, Major Smarty Pants?” “Who said I’ve never done this? Call it a…premonition.”

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Lin didn’t say anything. They watched her close her eyes and swallow hard. Tristan wavered between lust and concern. “Fear or want?” “Lin? Chérie? Everything all right?” Tristan caressed her hair for a moment then let his hand travel down her side and over her hip. He drew small circles on her skin with his thumb but with every touch, every passing second, she didn’t seem to relax or breathe normally. Her breathing was shallow and her body taut against him. In anticipation. Want. “I want to do it, honey. I want to do it to you. Together with him. Will you let us?” He knew when she finally looked at him she would see both of them raging in Alex’s eyes. The mutual heat was too much, the simultaneous drive to have her, to experience her pleasure, too strong to hide. There was no need to hide it. It was all good, as Alex had said. It was all for her as he had said from day one. And his lovely, bold Cajun girl was a whisper away from trembling with the need to give in to both of them. Letting go of her arms, Tristan propped himself on one arm and grasped her hip gently, not wanting to miss one blink, one expression. “I want to touch you. We both need to touch you, Lin.” As her thighs opened wider, so did her eyes. No fear, no doubt, only his curious little cat waiting to be petted. “You see us, don’t you? Both of us.” “It’s beautiful.” “So are you, sweetie. Beautiful and desirable and we want to give you everything you deserve for being woman enough for two. All woman. One fearless, hot woman. We can’t get enough of you,” Alex said. “You’ll be the death of me.” “Oh no no no. We’ll be the life force of you. Like you are Tristan’s heart, like I’m now his body, like I want a part of you if you’ll let me have it. You could have this anytime you wanted. Anything you want, remember? It’s yours.”

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“Including you, Alex?”

“Tristan is the reason I came. You’re the only reason I’m staying. I’d like to see you throw me out now. I’m not budging, sweetie. What I will do is put two fingers inside you nice and easy while I reach for that toy.” His hand settled to rest on her mound, her pussy still moist from sucking him in the bathroom, slick all over again from the sex talk they were teasing her with. A finger slipped between her lips, then another. Alex pushed inside her, gliding with ease into her wetness. The long digits worked inside her for a moment, that sexy grin of his coming to life as he pulled his hand back and rolled his glistening fingers over the head of the dildo he now held in his other hand. “Ah fuck, Lin. I don’t think we’ll need a lube. We just need this juicy little pussy and we’ll be all set.” He placed the toy between her thighs and the head pressed against her clit. It circled her for a moment, played with her until she writhed, swayed, not knowing whether she wanted to get closer to the sensations or escape them. She didn’t want to come, not yet. She wanted to get off on the feel of Alex fucking her. She wanted summer-fest sex and all that strength and power pounding into her until she couldn’t take it anymore. But she wanted Tristan too, all the lust and the love he’d given her for so long, she didn’t know how to live without it. She didn’t want to live without it. Without either one of them in her life, inside her body, in her soul where they crept with every lick and kiss, every time they took her, with all the words that poured from both their mouths and minds. Like an addiction, every moment with them only made her yearn for more and all she could do was lose herself in the moment and the love they made to her or lose her mind longing for it to happen. “Don’t tease. Stop teasing and just do it.”

“Do what, angel? Tell us what to do and we’ll do it. What do you want?” Alex asked. 114

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“Take me. Both of you. Do it.” “That’s the festival spirit, Lin.” Alex kissed her. “I need you to turn around.” “No, I want to see her.” “I can’t slip this little toy inside her with my cock in her pussy. We have all the time in the world to do whatever we want, Tristan. Whatever she wants. And she’ll get to be with whoever she wants. Remember that, Lin. Even if you don’t see us, we’re both here. No matter who you want in your tight little butt and cunt, we’re both here.” He turned her over gently, smoothing his hands over her back and rear. Gripping her hips, he coaxed her to lift them up. Lin edged her thighs apart. “It won’t fit,” she murmured but she didn’t sound disgruntled or alarmed. She made it sound like a dare. “It’s not her anal dildo, FYI.” “I won’t fit either. Not before we practice a little. No time like the present, right? We’ve got just the thing for you.” He slipped a finger inside her pussy again, twisted and turned before withdrawing it. Pressing it against the tight hole of her rear, he spread the moisture on her entrance. “Ready, angel?” “Yes,” she said. Her breathing turned ragged as he pushed his finger only barely inside. The tight ring of her muscles contracted on him as he eased inside a scant inch and waited. Her breathing steadied, her muscles relaxing on him, and he slid in another inch then another until she exhaled in surrender. Alex worked his finger inside her ass and the dildo into her pussy, gliding easily into her slickness, lubricating the toy with her juices. “Now we switch. All you have to do is relax and I’ll show you it’s a perfect fit.” Lin’s breathing turned deeper again but she didn’t tighten on him as Alex pushed the tip of the dildo past her puckered opening.

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“That’s it. Just breathe. It’s all good, I promise.” He eased the toy inside her as he had done with his finger, giving her time to adjust, to relax before he asked for more. He gradually pushed the dildo to the base, lodging it deep inside her. “Good girl, Lin. Such a good girl to take part in the festivities so willingly. Let’s see if we can’t keep the good times rolling. I want in your pussy. Tristan wants to feel you gripping him tighter than you’ve ever done before. So do I. Will you let me? You still want it?” “Do it, baby. I want you in my pussy, baby, please.” The abandoned edge in her plea making him bold, Alex placed the tip of his cock on Lin’s pussy lips. He didn’t have to push, only press against her to feel the dildo filling her rear, making her pussy that much tighter, so damn tight. How the hell was he supposed to survive it or last or not hurt Lin in the process? “Easy, Alex. Nice and easy. She wants it. She wants you to. I wanna feel it. Do it.” He pushed the turgid knob into her, pushed past any resistance and stopped, letting her adjust again, trying to control his own breathing and moderate the effect of Lin’s tight grip on his bare cock. “Christ, that’s amazing. Keep going, Alex. Keep giving it to her. I need to feel it. Damn!” Alex inched deeper, pushed into the heavenly wetness, her cream easing his entrance and making it a pleasurable torture at the same time. Fire flowed through him as she squeezed down hard on his length, his cock filling her as he thrust deeper still. She was taking him to the hilt, whimpering as he buried himself high inside. “Please,” she gasped. Alex tapped at the end of the dildo anchored inside her ass. Lin clutched the sheets, clung to them as he started tapping harder, picking up a steady rhythm that nudged the toy lightly. “Please,” she keened. She was close. He hadn’t even started moving inside her pussy and she was ready to explode. So was he.

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“Fuck. I won’t last, Tristan. I won’t last worth a damn.” Alex moved hesitantly. Sensation after exquisite sensation shot between his brains and balls, tightening his sac as she tightened on his shaft. Flexing his cock, he started moving deep and hard inside her.

“Oh god, Tristan, oh god… Alex, fuck me. Yes!” She was going to die. She was going to come all over his cock and she would die with Alex filling her pussy while he wreaked havoc in her ass. Death by killer orgasm, double penetration, whatever they were doing she didn’t want them to stop, she never wanted them to stop… Her orgasm gripping her, ripping through her, Lin’s thighs began to tremble. He exploded inside her then with a loud groan. Jet after jet of hot cum pulsed into her as he spent himself deep into her pussy, her entire body shaking with the intensity of her release, of the feel of him pumping into her. Alex collapsed on the mattress, taking Lin down with him. He hauled her against him. “Oh my god,” he groaned. “You can say that again,” Tristan sighed. “Oh. My. God. I want to do it again.” “Next month maybe?” Lin suggested, her breathing still ragged. “Soon. Very soon, honey,” Tristan said. “That was beyond beautiful, angel. Perfect. You were perfect,” Alex added. “Summer-fest sex, huh? You’ll be the death of me, I can tell.”

***** “Admit it, Tristan. She would never have had this much fun with Danny.” “Who said anything about him?”

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“Would she have gotten summer-fest sex from him?” “How do you know she never got it from me?” “She didn’t seem to remember it if she had. But I distinctly remember Lin enjoying it. A lot.” “Oh god.” “Yeah, that’s what she said. Repeatedly. Ouch! My jaw’s hurting. Are you trying to grind your teeth again?” “I’m getting ready to kick your ass in a minute.” “Come on. Sweet loving for the sweetest of things. Isn’t that what you wanted? Didn’t I deliver?” “This can’t be just about sex.” “Says the man who went about getting us hitched the old-fashioned way. I tried to be noble when you acted like a stud in heat. I tried to take my cues from her, give her what she needs when she needs it, and give you room to move when I thought you could behave and not push her. I gave in to you and you gave back. So what the hell are you still afraid of?” “That you’ll have your fun, live out those battle jacks, then up and leave.” “Wow. I… Wow. What next? You’ll accuse her of adultery and me of poaching? I’m not out to fuck this up or destroy her. If there’s anyone I should have hurt, it’s you. If I’d really wanted to punish you, I never would’ve come. I never would have let you call her. She would never have known. Think about it.” “You’re starting to have feelings for Lin?” “Yes, I’m starting to have feelings for Lin and she’s starting to have feelings for me and you’ll just have to get over it. Something’s happening and it’s all good. So don’t you fucking jinx this.” “You’re not leaving?” Lin stirred in their arms. She arched away in a sensuous stretch then burrowed closer again. “You’re here.” Her voice was husky and fraught with surprise. 118

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“I’m not leaving.” “Aren’t you late for your run? The road’s waiting.” “Let it. I’m not budging. If you don’t mind.” “Why would I mind? I’ve had to wake alone on so many mornings this is a rare pleasure.” “And if I told you I’ve been thinking of making it a permanent pleasure? “I would say you’re saying a lot, Alex.” “And both of you should know by now I’m a man of my word.” “How am I going to explain taking a live-in lover? I’m not officially a widow yet.” “I can almost see the headlines. ‘Shameless area woman strikes again’. We have the rest of forever to figure it out, sweetie.” “One day at a time?” “And every long, lustful night.” “I promise to do my very best to be worthy of two good men.” Alex drew her closer and kissed her forehead. “You forgot to say deadly handsome.” Tristan kissed her brow. “Extremely intelligent and endlessly inventive.” “Oh and killer sexy too.” Alex trailed kisses down her cheek. Tristan picked up at her jawline and continued toward her chin. “Loving and loyal.” He stopped short of her mouth. Alex cradled her face in his hands. “All yours,” he whispered against her lips before taking her mouth. The End

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About the Author Born in her European passport country, raised in South America and schooled in two English dialects, Dita attributes her passion for writing to a lifetime of keeping it together while moving around. A firmly uprooted Third Culture Kid, she is an insatiable student of language and culture. Swept away and carried off by a Nordic hunk, Dita now reins in her wanderlust one sizzling escapist story at a time. She reads and writes several genres, but admits when prodded, writing erotica is the most fun she has with her clothes on.

Dita welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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