She smiled a little. Even during that incident, Chris had never once said anything in anger about Esteban. It wasn't his way to rant or trash talk. He simply made his point and pressed forward, not letting anything deter him from his intent, until he brought everyone else on board.
At home, Chris was always cognizant of her or Geoff's states of mind. If Geoff was in a bad mood, Chris was the one most likely to coax him out of it. They'd been friends since middle school. According to Chris, they'd met when Geoff had been getting his ass kicked by three other boys for running his way-too-smart mouth. Chris had jumped into the fray. Geoff insisted he'd had everything under control. Nevertheless, they'd been friends ever since.
When Geoff had walked away from his family, he'd literally had nothing, his entire education and housing having been funded by his parents. He'd moved in with Chris. Though he'd eventually secured the jobs and loans he needed to finish his education, Chris was the one who'd given him a place to stay and food to eat until that happened.
She sighed, turning on her side. Chris never said what he didn't mean, so when he'd said this wasn't about her, she understood that the two of them had to work it out. But patience wasn't her strong suit. Not when she'd already opened Pandora's box.
She put her hand on the wall. Even by herself in the dark, she flushed as she thought of what Chris had said. He'd heard her masturbate, despite how quiet she thought she'd been. And he said he'd done the same, listening to her. While thinking about that heightened the arousal she'd been able to choke back down to simmering since the tree house, she wanted something more than the physical from him right now. As selfish as it might be, she needed some type of acknowledgement that they were still friends. That it was going to be okay.
She tapped the first few notes of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on the wall, waited, and hoped. It was their usual bedtime good night, but she told herself it didn't mean anything if he didn't respond. After the day he'd had, he could well be asleep. She closed her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat.
. . . went up the water spout. The taps came a few minutes later, when she'd resigned herself to falling asleep with only her own thoughts for company. Her heavy heart thumped with hope as she did the next few notes. He finished it, then did the two taps he always did at the end to say good night.
She did the same, two taps, but tonight she added three. I love you.
It soothed her enough to send her into a fitful sleep, but she woke around midnight to hear Geoff moving quietly down the hall. She was surprised to hear him open Chris's door. She couldn't determine from the murmur of male voices what was being said or the tone of the conversation, but then they both quieted and the house was still once more.
Whereas her mind was now spinning like a top. It took her another hour to get back to sleep.
*
Since Esteban's crew went to work at dawn, usually Chris was in the bathroom first in the morning. However, from his closed door, it appeared he was sleeping in today. Esteban had probably given them a day off after their nonstop work in Mississippi. Geoff's door was closed as well. She suspected he'd be working from home after such a late night at the office, unless there was a meeting or trial.
She took her shower. When she got out, she tucked the towel around her and cracked the bathroom door to let the steam out as she always did, since the bathroom didn't have a vent. She was putting moisturizer on her face when she looked in the mirror and saw Chris peering around the door at her. "Mind if I come in and keep you company?"
She felt like the sun had come out from behind clouds. "I can't think of anything I'd like better."
Pursing his lips, he lifted a Krispy Kreme bag. "So I get to keep all these for myself?"
"You're evil," she informed him, and he grinned. There were still shadows in his eyes, but he was obviously making an effort, and she'd do the same. She'd sit on every compulsion she had and try not to force a thing between any of them. At least not today.
Chris took a seat on the edge of the tub, straddling the wall as he pulled out her favorite, a raspberry-filled glazed donut with powdered sugar on top. He handed it to her with wax paper wrapped around the base. He also had a flat of coffee, and he offered her one of the three cups, which she wasn't surprised to find had been mixed to her preference. As she leaned against the counter, sipping on it and inhaling that intoxicating Krispy Kreme smell that even clung to their coffee cups, she was aware of his gaze drifting up her bare knees to midthigh. The towel was the only barrier concealing her from him. Was he as hyperaware of that as she was?
Drink your coffee, Sam. Let him decide.
"I'm sorry about yesterday, Sam," he said quietly. "You know none of that had anything to do with you, right?"
"I started all this."
"So it's your fault?" His brown eyes clouded. "That's bullshit."
"It's not Geoff's fault, either," she responded. "It's just . . . It's growing pains. Our growing pains."
"Smart woman."
Geoff was in the doorway, wearing his running shorts and T-shirt. He looked toward the other man. "Did you get a lemon-filled one?" His personal favorite.
Chris pulled one out of the bag, again in the wax wrap, and passed it over with a cup of coffee. Geoff took a bite of the donut, studying her in the mirror's reflection. The steam in the bathroom had left a mist on the clear shower door and the mirror, but having the door open was evaporating it. Putting down the donut, Geoff stepped closer to her. She had her hair up in a twist until she could dry it, and her skin tingled as he slid his finger over her shoulder blades. "That permanent marker's holding pretty well."
She hadn't scrubbed it. Hadn't wanted it to go away just yet, in case she'd ruined it for all of them and yesterday was the closest she'd get to what she wanted for the foreseeable future.
She was cognizant of how close Chris was to her, his foot within a few inches of her toes. They were both close to her in this small space, and she didn't know where to take it. Or if it was even her job to take it anywhere now. Geoff answered the question for her.
Removing the donut from her hand, he held it to her mouth. His other hand on her lower back kept her facing the mirror. "Take a bite."
She did. Geoff watched her chew and swallow, then turned the donut toward him so he could run his finger along the bite area, collecting some of the raspberry filling on his fingers. He spread that over her lips. "Lick it off."
She obeyed, her body starting to throb. She couldn't gauge Chris's response to what they were doing, but she hoped he wasn't about to surge up from the tub and leave the room. Geoff stepped back and took a seat on the tub edge. He straddled it and leaned against the bathroom wall, a mirror position to how Chris was leaning against the shower wall.
"Take off the towel," Geoff said, low.
Had they talked to one another? Arranged for this? Chris's jaw was tight, studiously avoiding looking at Geoff, but she noticed his eyes were trained on her as if he couldn't look away, no matter what conflicting thoughts he might be harboring.
Yesterday she'd broken the mood between her and him by bringing the shadow of Geoff between them, a poorly-timed attempt to resolve the conflict between the two men. She didn't have to do that now, because Geoff was here. She was going to try and trust the truth: that he'd been Chris's friend longer than he'd known her, and so he might have a better idea of how to make this work. She'd also ignore every TV show or movie that said lifelong male friendships were sure to be destroyed by a conflict over a woman. What did they know? They didn't know these two men, or herself.
She let the towel fall. Mindful of the lesson Geoff had taught her, she stood up straight and proud, no matter the frisson of nerves that went through her stomach. Geoff hadn't told her to turn away from the mirror, so she watched their eyes course over her in the glass's reflection. All the pale flesh of her limbs and abdomen, her breasts and sex. Her neck, where the pulse was jumping like a small bird beneath her jaw.
"I'll be right back. Don't move." Risin
g, Geoff left the bathroom and moved across the hallway into her room. Her brow creased as she heard him open a drawer, maybe to her nightstand. What was he doing? Chris's gaze stayed on her, and a blink later Geoff was back, holding her vibrator. How had he known exactly where to find it? His gaze met hers in the mirror, his lips curving as he enjoyed the erotic humiliation staining her cheeks.
"Looks like her clit is already swollen," Geoff said conversationally, glancing toward Chris. Taking a seat on the tub wall again, he extended the vibrator to the other man. "You're better with power tools than I am. Want to see if you can make her scream? I know we've both imagined doing it, controlling it so she has to depend on us to make her come, rather than making the choice herself."
Chris gave Geoff an unfathomable look, but he took the vibrator from him, turning it over in his hands. Sam swallowed. It was a standard rabbit design, the clitoral stimulator shaped like a rabbit's head, the long ears and pointed nose both capable of transmitting a variety of arousing patterns against her sensitive flesh. The dildo part was shaped realistically like a man's cock, the rubber sheath like human flesh.
Geoff's gaze lifted to meet hers in the mirror again. "Spread your legs to shoulder width and hold on to the edge of the sink with both hands. Don't let go unless one of us tells you to do it."
That beat in her throat became even more frenetic, matched by a throbbing between her legs. But she obeyed. In this position, she was slightly bent forward. With her legs spread, she'd be showing them the folds of her sex. Their eyes both swiveled in that direction, with such heat and deliberation it felt like they'd touched her there. Her fingers tightened on the sink.
Geoff retrieved his donut and took a bite. "It's Chris's fault I know about your vibrator," he said. "He told me if I'd shut off the TV instead of falling asleep to it, I'd hear you when you use it. It's very faint, but once you know the sound, you listen for it."
"I mostly do it when you're not home," she said weakly. Though lately she'd been having to do an encore at night, because of the direction of her thoughts and the two of them being so close.
"Not anymore." Geoff's gaze met hers, held. "Not unless you ask."
She wasn't sure if she could comply with that as long as the two of them were capable of sexually frustrating her to the point of insanity. His gaze gleamed, registering her recalcitrance.
"Do you just use this part"--Chris tapped the rabbit's head--"or do you put it inside you?"
"Both," she managed. The whole conversation was surreal. "It depends. If it's a quick stress release, I'll just use the stimulator. If I'm . . . fantasizing more, I'll use the rest." Actually she had a pretty rich fantasy life no matter which part of it she used, but she was feeling self-conscious and overwhelmed by the abundance of testosterone in the room, so she was sticking to short answers.
"Do you need lube for it?"
Geoff answered that one for her. "All the lubrication you need is between her legs. Rub the head gently just inside her pussy to coat it and get it started. You can also use your fingers to be sure, before you put it inside her. Just like you'd do before you fuck her."
Sam couldn't imagine what unspoken messages were passing in their exchanged look. Knowing Chris was less sexually experienced than Geoff wasn't a surprise. Nor was seeing him be more concerned about doing it right than pretending he knew what he doing. That was so Chris. It made her heart tighten, even as her body tightened for different reasons when he rose.
She stayed as Geoff had ordered her, her hands gripping the edge of the sink, legs spread to shoulder width. When Chris's hand settled on her shoulder, her quiet whimper had his eyes sharpening with his own desires. Setting the vibrator on the counter, he held her steady as he dropped his other hand over her buttock and then between her legs from behind. His fingers stroked, probed, making her quiver. Geoff's gaze was on what Chris was doing with his hand, yet Chris's didn't leave hers in the mirror. It reinforced that this was between her and Chris in a singular way, even as Geoff's presence added an explosive level of heat to the mix.
It was so close to her ultimate desires, having them both here, watching her, touching her. Yet there was that precarious barrier between them, an edge she could feel all three of them walking, seeing where this would go.
"Oh . . ." She bit her lip as Chris eased his large finger into her. She tensed at first, no help for it, because one never knew if a man would move too fast, trying to thrust before he knew the shape of her channel, but this was Chris, who handled baby birds in his palm. He found his way slowly, his expression concentrated as he put another finger in and explored. Her lips were parted, her eyes glazing with her response, her cheeks flushed, all things she saw in the mirror as she watched him as well.
"Does that hurt?"
She shook her head.
"He's right," Chris murmured. "You're wet as you can be. Is that for us?"
She nodded emphatically. A faint smile touched his lips and approval flashed in Geoff's eyes, drawing the web of heated lust around her. She was held between the two of them, and they were pulling those threads ever tighter around her body.
Chris slowly withdrew his hand. He switched the vibrator on its lowest setting before sliding it between her legs, caressing her with the pink head. The vibration rippled along her petals, up inside her, along her clit, and her hold on the sink edge constricted once more. He didn't put it inside her, but instead moved it between her spread legs so she was watching the head rub against her clit as the rabbit's ears teased her labia.
Her breath caught as his hand on her shoulder shifted to curl around her throat, tipping her chin up. His palm was wide enough to collar her from her chin to the base of her neck, his fingers wrapping around to her nape. His strength and the size of his hand reminded her how fragile she was. But she felt no fear when Chris was holding her life in his one big hand. Just the opposite. Now he looped his arm around her so he could insert the vibrator between her legs from the front, tickling her clit with those potent ears.
"What speed gets you the closest without making you come?" he asked.
"It's the fourth one . . . It's like rain pattering, followed by a quick surge, then it goes back to the other."
He pressed the button to get there, his expression morphing into fascination at the results. Each time the rain pattern intensified, her body would arch, a moan breaking from her lips. He crowded her at the sink, holding her against his body, and her response escalated. Geoff leaned against the wall watching them, a still, dense energy.
Another patter, surge, patter, patter, surge. She was rising up on her toes on each surge, that same sound breaking from her lips and becoming louder when Chris wrapped her hand around the toy to make her hold it there. It freed him to reach across her, cup one breast as his forearm pressed against the other. His aroused cock was against her buttocks, a steel bar beneath his clothes. She jerked and writhed against it.
Up, up, so close, then down. The two men watched her cries grow more helpless, more pleading. Chris caressed her throat as his other hand constricted on her breast to hold her still, allowing her only small movements to absorb the powerful waves that took her ever nearer to climax.
"Please." She spoke in a strained whisper. "I want . . . you to hold it. To choose . . . when I can come." She wanted her orgasm totally under his control. She wanted to feel the press of his knuckles against her thighs, wanted him to choose the pattern and rhythm he liked, testing and experimenting.
When he closed his hand on the toy, taking over again, she was so close she thought she'd waited too late to make her request. Yet instead of sending her over, he switched the toy off and set it aside. She swallowed her cry of protest as he gave her something even better--direct contact. He rubbed her pussy with his knuckles, light brushes that rocketed through her. She quivered, strained, her hips working, rubbing her ass against his cock at the same time she moved herself against the rough pads of his fingers.
"Chris . . ."
"Scream for me," he s
aid, his eyes fiery and intent. He pushed his fingers back inside her, thumb worrying her clit as he took her over that edge. She bowed back against him, legs still spread as Geoff had commanded, as Chris had reinforced with the press of his body. When her knees buckled, Chris had her, pushing her over the counter, holding her against his braced thighs as he kept playing and stroking, as he supported her with that gentle hand against her throat, his expression far less gentle. He looked like he wanted to plow his cock into her like a rutting bull, and she was all for that.
She screamed out her climax, and he kept her riding it to the very end, until she had her cheek pressed to the mirror, her body canted over the sink. Only then did he slide his fingers from her, pressing his palm against her still-spasming flesh, sealing in a satisfying ripple. Bending, he pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades. After he helped her straighten slowly, he picked up her towel and tucked it around her hips, leaving her bare to the waist. Her lips quirked at the obvious male preference, even as it took her back to her slave-girl fantasy.
He was still aroused, she could see it in his face, in the tension of his body, in the obvious erection pressing against his pants. Yet he wasn't demanding anything further from her, instead staring at her in the mirror as if she were a mystery he wasn't sure how to pursue next.
Geoff rose. In the small bathroom, he was close enough to touch her, but he didn't. His expression told her that he wished to do so, but was holding back for reasons of his own, many of them probably connecting to Chris. He nudged him with an elbow.
"She needs you inside her, your mouth on her. She doesn't look like she slept well last night. One more orgasm, and she'll sleep like a baby. In your arms."
Chris met his gaze. A muscle twitched in Geoff's jaw, but he inclined his head, spoke even more softly. "Take her to bed, Chris. Make her ours."