the couch that my chest didn’t cave in just a little. But there was also a lightness there, relief, as Cam put it. I wanted it to be me, but I also realized that it would be me. All I had to do was give you time.”
He worked his hand back up to her shoulder and then to the curve of her neck and finally her face. He kissed her again, just a light peck at the corner of her mouth, but she felt the love behind the gesture, felt it to her toes.
“I feel like I’ve loved you forever, Reggie. Ever since we met in that creek bottom, and if I didn’t love you then, I lost my heart when you decked Sawyer and Cam for making fun of me. There are times when I resent the fact that I have to share you with them. In my heart, you were mine first.”
She sucked in her breath and trembled as tears welled in her eyes.
“But I also know as much as I love you that they love you too. And then I imagine having to be without you, and it hurts me. It’s a physical ache I can’t control. I know it’s how they’d feel. They’re brothers to me, and I know you love them too. I can sit here and talk about the hurt it would cause me and them, but it’s nothing to the pain it would cause you if we made you choose. I know you well enough to know it’s something you’d never do. It’s why you ran so hard. Because you didn’t want to hurt us, no matter how much you were hurting yourself.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. He gently thumbed them aside as he gazed earnestly into her watery eyes.
“I do love you, Hutch,” she whispered. “Thank you for understanding and for not feeling threatened by the fact that I love Cam and Sawyer too.”
“We just want you with us,” he said so seriously as he stroked her hair. “We know it won’t be easy, but we’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep you with us always.”
“Make love to me, Hutch. I’ve waited so long.”
He rolled over her, planting his knees into the mattress as he looked down at her. With clumsy fingers, he eased her shirt up her body until it gathered around her neck.
Slowly, he moved each arm above her then worked the shirt over her head. He tossed it aside then lowered his head to her belly.
Warm, sweet lips pressed to her rib cage. He feathered kisses over her skin, starting at the edge of her bra and working down to her navel.
His damp tongue brushed over the hollow, swirled around the center, and then his teeth grazed the shivering skin. He fumbled with the button of her fly, finally popping it. The zipper scratched downward, and his fingers tucked into the waistband.
She arched upward to allow him to pull the jeans over her hips. They slid down her legs, gathering at her ankles. She kicked as he pulled, and seconds later she was free.
She lay there in the middle of the bed in her bra and panties. Her plain white, unsexy underwear. He didn’t seem to mind her taste in lingerie. He looked too interested in getting her out of it to notice.
He leaned down again and gathered her in his arms. He pressed a kiss in the valley of her breasts as his hands dug between her and the bed. His fingers found the clasp of her bra, and he worked it free.
He moved his hands up and over her shoulders, dragging the straps with his fingers as he lowered them down her body. His eyes glittered with desire as the cups of her bra came away from her breasts.
Her nipples puckered and tightened painfully, and he hadn’t even touched her yet. The bra went sailing across the room and then his hands returned to her sides. He wrapped those long, lean fingers around her rib cage, his touch firm and possessive.
A whispered sigh escaped her lips as his dark head bent to her breast. He lapped his tongue over one sensitive point, dragging it slowly over the tip.
She closed her eyes and whimpered as flashes of pleasure centered in her core, tightened her pussy and sent a raw, aching need straight to her heart.
“Please,” she whispered. “I need you so much, Hutch.”
He raised his head, and their gazes connected. Heat sparked across that connection, enveloped them and sent electricity racing through her veins.
He moved up to claim her mouth again. His fingers found her breasts, plumping the soft flesh against his palms then fingering the nipples.
“You’re so beautiful, Reggie. You take my breath away every time I look at you.”
Her heart twinged, and she glowed under his words.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I’ve always loved you. You were the first person to truly love me.”
His mouth grazed down her jaw to her ear and then below, whispering down her neck. His fingers flexed at her breasts, splaying over her body, leaving a trail of fire wherever they touched.
Kisses tickled her skin. She bowed her back when his mouth closed hot around a nipple. He sucked it between his teeth and held it there, nipping lightly at the taut bud.
She pulsed at her center. Hot, aching and needy. She was swollen and ready. Her body was on fire and burning more out of control with each sweep of his tongue, each tender caress of his fingers.
The light rasp of his palms over the curves of her hips elicited light shudders. He hooked his fingers into the band of her panties, and he pulled downward until the small triangle of curls was exposed to his sight . . . and touch.
He rolled away, taking her underwear with him to drop on the floor. He stood hastily by the bed and began pulling at his clothes.
He was shorter than both Sawyer and Cam, but his body was honed into a solid form of muscle and sinew. He and Sawyer both worked alongside their crews, and it was evident in the dark tan and the ripple of muscles across his shoulders and chest.
As he pulled his pants down, her breath caught when his rigid cock bobbed into view. Surrounded by dark, wiry curls, it jutted upward, thick and heavy.
It was a sight that mesmerized her. She imagined his hardness inside her mouth, her body, stroking hard and deep within her.
She twisted and fidgeted on the bed, restless in her edgy desire to have him. All of him.
When he started for the nightstand, she knew he was going after a condom.
“Hutch,” she said softly. “Don’t.”
He glanced up sharply, his gaze questioning.
“Are you sure you don’t want a condom, Reggie?”
She shook her head and sighed, knowing that before things went any further they were going to have to have the same conversation she’d had with Cam.
She glanced down and closed her eyes as the bed dipped and he returned to her. He nudged her chin up with his fingers.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I just regret that because of me we even need to have this conversation,” she said with a sigh.
Genuinely puzzled eyes stared back at her. “Baby, you lost me.” Then his gaze sharpened. “Did Cam not wear a condom?” He looked almost angry.
She blew out her breath. She was making a huge mess of this.
“No, Cam didn’t wear one. We didn’t think about it at the time. He was pretty worried about it the next morning, but I assured him I was on birth control.”
Hutch frowned. “It’s not about you being on birth control. Cam should have protected you better than that.”
“If I hadn’t had a one-night stand with someone after that night a year ago, we wouldn’t be bothering to have these conversations,” she said in a low voice.
Hutch blinked. “What? You think . . . Wait a minute. What exactly do you think here?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I used protection that night. I’m safe. It only happened that once. I was so sick about it the next day that I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone other than you or Cam and Sawyer ever touching me.”
She glanced down guiltily as she finished.
“Reggie, baby, look at me,” Hutch said softly.
She glanced up nervously, worried about what she’d see in his eyes. Disappointment? Disgust? But she saw neither. She saw love.
“I’m not even sure what to say here. I don’t want to say the wrong thing. I’ll be honest. When you told me that you??
?d slept with someone else after what happened here, I was gutshot. I wanted to go hunt the bastard down and kick his ass. I wanted to wrap myself around you so far that you’d lose yourself in me and only me.
“But then I saw the look in your eyes. The self-condemnation and the worry that you’d somehow betrayed us. I saw vulnerability and pain, and I was gutshot all over again.”
He stroked his fingers over her cheek, up and down, and then rubbed the back of his knuckles across her jaw.
“What happens now is what’s important. Not what happened then. Don’t get me wrong, if you go crawl into bed with someone other than me . . . or Sawyer or Cam,” he added in a strangled voice, “I’ll kick not only his ass but yours as well. And then I’ll tie you to my bed for the next year.”
Her laugh came out shaky and ended on a sob.
“I’m sorry, Hutch. I’ve never said it but wanted to so many times.”
“Don’t, baby. We came at you out of nowhere. We blindsided you and scared you out of your mind. No matter what we wanted, you hadn’t made a commitment to us. You didn’t owe us anything.”
She shook her head blindly. “I did. I at least owed you an explanation, a conversation before I crawled into someone else’s bed.” She closed her eyes as tears crept in. “I hate myself for doing it. I don’t even know why I did. I was . . . lonely. I wanted you but didn’t know how to ask for what I wanted.”
“Ahhh, baby,” he murmured as he pulled her into his arms. He cradled her against his chest and pressed tiny kisses to the top of her head, her forehead, and over her closed eyes.
He stroked her hair for several minutes as she squeezed tighter against him.
“About the condoms, Reggie. I want you protected.”
She pulled away, just enough that she could see him. “Cam said . . . he said there hadn’t been another woman since he realized he loved me.”
Hutch’s eyes flared in surprise.
“He’s safe, and I’m safe . . . but if we’re going to—”
“If we’re going to walk into this kind of relationship, we have to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Hutch said evenly.
She nodded.
“I’ve made love with two women,” he said solemnly. “A girl I dated my freshman year in college and then . . . you.”
She went still against him. “That’s all?” she whispered.
“Like Cam, there was never another woman after I realized my feelings for you.” Pain twisted his features. “Actually that’s not true.” He looked down, and it was her turn to force his chin up so he stared back at her.
“What’s not true?” she prompted.
“I’ve always loved you. And I suppose it’s why I can’t be angry with you for sleeping with another man, because I slept with another woman knowing that I loved you and that I didn’t have a prayer of ever not loving you.”
Her heart twisted into one huge knot. Then it loosened, took wings and flew. Love bubbled into her chest, filling it until she thought she just might burst.
“I love you,” she said simply. “And you were right. What was isn’t as important as what is and what will be.”
“What will be,” he murmured. “What’s going to be, baby, is that I’m going to love you and do my damnedest to make this arrangement work.”
“Then love me. Make love to me. I need you, Hutch. I’ve always needed you.”
His mouth closed over hers, feeding hungrily, sipping at her lips then devouring. She sucked at his bottom lip, nipping gently with her teeth then soothing with her tongue.
His hardness settled between her legs as he moved his body over hers. She cradled him against her, absorbing his heat, his power. Her hands ran over his body, his shoulders, his back, down to his muscular buttocks. They tightened underneath her fingertips as she explored the rounded globes.
He settled his elbows on either side of her head and dipped to kiss her as he shifted his hips to work further between her thighs.
His cock brushed the curls between her legs then delved deeper as he flexed his hips.
She opened for him, wanting him. Her pussy throbbed, each little pulse sending a surge of liquid adrenaline rocketing through her pelvis.
The broad head of his penis nudged at her folds, brushing across her clit before settling lower at her entrance. Spasms of delight, centering at the quivering nub of flesh between her legs and radiating outward in all directions, licked at her as he brushed upward again from her entrance through the delicate, damp flesh.
“Hutch, please,” she gasped.
Propping himself on one arm, he reached between them with his other hand and grasped his cock, positioning it then sliding forward just an inch.
She sucked in her breath and tensed from head to toe as an explosion of sensation rocked her to her core.
He was so thick, so hard.
She closed her eyes and threw her head back as he eased forward. Her body stretched to accommodate him, giving in to his persistent intrusion.
And then he withdrew, and she moaned in protest. He settled back on his arms on either side of her head, flexed his hips to enter her once more then captured her mouth in a demanding kiss.
She could feel the strain, the fight within him. He was afraid of hurting her. She smiled, slid her mouth down his jaw until she reached his neck and then sank her teeth into his skin.
“Reggie, dear God, stop that!”
She grinned and nibbled up to his ear before sucking the lobe into her mouth. He shuddered against her and surged deeper. She let out a contented sigh. Much, much better.
She wiggled underneath him, adjusting the angle of her hips so she could take him deeper.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he groaned. “Stop moving or it’s going to be over in about two seconds flat.”
She chuckled then wrapped her arms and legs tightly around him. She planted her heels in his hard ass and hoisted herself higher, seeking to plant him deeper.
“Impatient little wench.”
“Demanding too,” she murmured against his ear, and then she licked him again, rolling her tongue over the inner shell.
His big body shuddered against her, and it was as if the last string holding his control snapped right in two. He rose on his knees, drew his hands back between her legs, shoved them underneath her thighs and pushed forward.
Spread wide beneath him, she cried out when he thrust and planted himself deep into her body.
He worked her legs higher, and he leaned into her. And then his hips met her pelvis as he slid all the way in.
She gasped at the incredible sense of fullness. Her pussy quivered, stretched around him, every nerve ending pulsing and throbbing against his cock.
He dropped her legs and lowered his body until his chest pressed against her breasts. He burrowed his arms underneath her back, pulling her close. His legs strained as his knees held the bulk of his weight from her.
He flexed his hips, withdrawing and then sinking into her again.
“I’ve waited so long for this,” he said softly. “For it to be just you and me, you wrapped around me like a blanket and me so deep inside you that I get lost.”
She dug her nails into his shoulders and lifted her hips to meet his thrust. She was slick around his cock, and he glided easily back and forth.
Delicious friction. He worked faster and harder, his earlier concern of hurting her seemingly gone.
Deep within, the burn began. Small at first but growing larger. A tiny kernel of pleasure blossomed, rolling tighter and tighter, faster and faster.
She moaned and urged him on. She grabbed at him, her hands slipping. She wrapped her legs around him and came off the bed, straining against him with all her strength.
He buried his face in her neck, kissing and nibbling, his breaths coming in gasps as the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh grew louder.
His body rose and fell against her. They grabbed for each other, holding, grasping, desperate in their attempt to get closer, for no space
to be between them.
“Hutch,” she whispered. “Oh, please, don’t stop.”