Geoff shook his head. "We're not in the dark anymore, Chris. Look at me."
"I am looking at you."
Are you? The words beat on the inside of Geoff's chest, harder blows than he'd expected. But he managed a tight smile and brushed his knuckles over Chris's chest, tugging on the hair. "All right, then. I want to leave it there for tonight."
He straightened, all too aware he stopped looking at Chris as he pulled on his slacks and shrugged back into his shirt. He couldn't handle looking at Chris, his naked, muscular body, his puzzled expression.
Fuck, had he truly just denied himself the chance to come in Chris's ass because he got caught up in some dysfunctional bullshit about family rejection? He'd fucked plenty of people in defiance of that crap. People who weren't anything more than a one-night stand. That was the problem. He couldn't do it here.
"Is this some kind of Dom/sub bullshit?" Chris asked. He didn't sound angry, but he was getting close.
Geoff bit back the nasty reply that sprang to his lips. He could say yes, because maybe a small part of it was. But lying would probably be worse than the truth. Probably.
"This is enough for now," Geoff said. He wasn't punishing anyone, wasn't trying to be a dick, though he was probably accomplishing both. "We'll figure the rest out tomorrow. Maybe we'll get started on that project we were going to build for Sam."
"Geoff." Chris got up off the bed, but Geoff stepped back, raising a hand. He met Chris's eyes, and whatever Chris saw stilled him. Anger gave way to compassion in Chris's face as he obviously put two and two together. Damn it, there were times Chris's intuition was a pain in the ass. Chagrin would really piss Geoff off and make him lash out. Which would be the entirely wrong tactic, since the one he despised the most at the moment wasn't Chris. Not even close.
"No," he said firmly. "Don't do that, Chris. You feel what you feel." Or don't feel, rather. "No apologies. Leave it for now."
Thank God, Chris's phone began to ring, and it was Sam. Chris's ringtone for her was "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars, which had made her smile from ear to ear when he'd played it for her. He used the Darth Vader theme for Geoff. Smartass.
Scooping the phone off the floor where he'd knocked it when his head had hit the crate, Geoff tossed it onto Chris's bed. "Tell her to call me after she talks to you," he said casually. "If she wants to talk to both of us. I'm headed to my room. See you in the morning."
*
Chris stared after him as Geoff left him standing naked and slack-jawed in the middle of the room. Damn it all to hell and back. The guy thought he was playing it all casual and relaxed, but Chris had seen more relaxed-looking telephone poles. His stiff back and set shoulders were the last Chris saw of him before he disappeared into his room.
"See you in the morning, my ass," he muttered. Chris snatched up his shorts. As Bruno's song continued to play, he thought about not answering, about going after Geoff and making it right, but charging into that without thinking it through was a great way to disturb a nest of snakes.
Dissatisfied regardless, he put the phone to his ear and tried to clear his head. The climax had been over-the-top, but still somehow lacking. He'd fucked it up, yeah. No doubt on that. All of the feelings had swamped him, threatening to cut him adrift. When Geoff demanded he admit he'd always wanted this, Chris hadn't been ready to completely let go of the shore. Yet Geoff had pulled back when he couldn't have everything he wanted all at once. So some of that blame had to be on him.
"Chris? Are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that."
"No, I'm sorry. I did try Geoff's first, because I know he's more of the night owl, but he didn't answer. Since that meant the universe is ending or he's dead, I thought I'd better wake you up and see which one is happening."
"I wasn't asleep, promise. And you know he'd answer even if the universe were ending. But no, he's not dead."
"Good." She paused. "Okay, what's going on?"
Um . . . let's see. Geoff fucked me and took off. It wasn't like Chris had wanted pillow talk or cuddling, right? Actually, that would have been kind of nice. At least share a postcoital beer. But that wasn't the problem.
"You and Geoff haven't been fighting, have you? Were any bones broken? Blood spilled?"
"Not much." He assumed Geoff didn't have a life-threatening skull fracture, though his head had hit the corner of the crate pretty hard. "He bumped his head just now and I have a busted lip from earlier today. He also face-planted in the yard. All of that was his fault."
"I'm sure. What am I going to do with the two of you?" She sounded tenderly amused, but she was too smart, and knew too much about them, to believe he was merely teasing her. "Are you okay, Chris? Has he hurt you?"
"No . . . I think I hurt him." But fuck it, it wasn't as easy as it was with Sam. The things Geoff wanted, how those unspoken things made Chris feel, were things he couldn't voice. Only by not saying things did he manage sometimes to say what he really needed to say. Which sounded fucked up, even in his own head.
"Well, say you're sorry." She drew in a breath, letting it out in a rush of words. "So-has-anyone-had-sex-in-the-house-with-anyone-else-while-I've-been-gone?"
She stuck an iron pipe in the spokes of his state of mind. He couldn't help it, he laughed. "You are such a fucking brat."
"That was not a no. Oh my God, you did, didn't you? Or he . . . or you both . . ."
"We invited the UNC-Charlotte women's basketball team over and did three of them at a time. Twice."
"Yeah, right." She snorted, but then quieted. "Chris."
He ran a hand over his face. Unbidden, he remembered that moment Geoff had demanded a yes-or-no answer from him. Some strange feeling had spiked in his belly, and he'd spoken the one word. "Yes. We did. But it's in a weird place right now, Sam. We're trying to figure this out, and you acting part cheerleader and part like the coach telling us the whole game is riding on us, it's too much pressure."
"Oh. Yeah, I can see that. I'm sorry." She sounded genuinely chagrined, but hurt was under that. He cursed himself.
"Hey, you're okay." He gentled his tone. "It's just . . . it just happened, and it ended on a kind of crappy note. I'm being kind of an asshole because it's bugging me. You didn't deserve that, and you're not acting that way."
"Maybe I was, a little bit. Sometimes the truth has to hurt, I guess. You can't pretend it doesn't, just to make the other person feel better. Otherwise nothing else will really be true." Letting that settle between them, her tone changed and became more teasing. "Maybe you should go tell Geoff that if you gave it up for him, you expect cuddling. And pillow talk."
"Maybe you should mind your busy little nose before someone cuts it off."
"Men are so dumb." There was a smile back in her voice, which made him feel better. He'd rather not alienate both of his best friends tonight. "So . . ." She cleared her throat. "Are you lying on your bed naked and sweaty? You're still a bit breathless. I can hear that part."
"You really are a brat. How's your thing going?"
"Boring, as always, but Flo and I went out to a dance club tonight with some of the girls. It was fun."
"Lesbian club? No men in sight?"
"Absolutely," she lied cheerfully. "I'll take you and Geoff there sometime and do a lap dance with a hot stranger to turn you both on." Her voice turned into a throaty little purr. "So . . . is anything sore?"
"You fishing for details?"
"Yes," she said. "I'm imagining so many things, but the reality . . . I want to hear about the reality. I'd like to watch the two of you."
He blinked. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Did you forget our girl-on-girl burger commercial conversation? Why do you want to see me give a lap dance to another woman? Seeing you two touching each other, your gorgeous bodies rubbing up against each other, your . . ." She paused. "I don't think I'm drunk enough for phone sex. But I keep thinking about the way you look now, how things feel . . ."
His cock tried to st
ir back to life at her intrigued tone. It gave him an idea. Maybe a bad one, but sometimes a guy had to risk the nest of snakes so he didn't miss seeing something really cool happen on the other side of them.
"He made me spew like a teenager and, when I move, I can feel the lube still in my ass." He glanced toward the cheap mirror he had up on the wall. The TV light provided just enough illumination to confirm his next words. "And there are red spots on my face where he rubbed his jaw against me."
"Oh . . ." Her voice dwindled.
Maybe it was a crutch, but the idea of commanding her made him feel more in charge of what was going on. "Did you take your vibrator with you?"
"No. I was afraid I might . . . be too tempted."
"Uh-huh. We'd have to punish you when you got home." This was new for him, but he heard the little catch in her breath and pressed onward. "Are you in your room? By yourself?"
"Yes."
"Put your hand between your legs and play with yourself. I want your fingers inside you. Are you wet and hot?"
A pause, a sound as if she bobbled the phone. His cock definitely reacted as she let out a quiet moan. "Yes."
"Good. Keep your hand in there and call Geoff. Tell him what you're doing and ask him if you can keep going."
He cut the connection and moved into the hallway, listening for the sound of Geoff's phone ringing. When he heard Geoff answer, Chris put his hand on Geoff's bedroom door and slowly pushed it inward.
Geoff was stretched out on his bed in his pajama pants, no shirt, and had the TV on the news. He'd muted it when he answered his phone. Looking at Chris, he switched the phone to speaker mode. All the better.
"So your fingers are in your pussy?" Geoff's slightly stern voice made Chris's cock twitch another step toward a full erection.
"Yes." Sam had that breathy sound to her voice.
"And Chris told you to do that."
"Yes sir."
Geoff's lips pressed together and Chris felt an odd leap at the address. He moved to the end of the bed and around the corner. Geoff's eyes were focused on him with a neutral expression. Chris wasn't interested in neutral. He wanted to see those sensual lips stretched back from his teeth, allowing Geoff to draw in much-needed air.
"Do we want to hear her come?" Geoff asked Chris, raising his voice so Sam heard the exchange.
"Yeah. Fast and hard. Calling both our names."
Approval surged in Geoff's expression. "You heard him, Sam."
"Yes."
"Good. You tell us what you're doing."
"I'm lying back on the bed . . ."
"Are your legs spread out nice and wide?"
"Yes."
"Spread them wider. Makes your clit and pussy more sensitive when you're touching them. Pretend Chris is holding your ankles, keeping you spread for us."
They both heard her response, an incoherent sound between moan and plea. Chris could see her writhing on the hotel bed. Pale skin, round curves, slick flesh. He paused, standing at Geoff's thigh. The other man raised a questioning brow, but Chris wasn't ready to explain himself. "Are you naked?" Geoff said into the phone.
"Um . . . panties and T-shirt. The one I stole from Chris's closet. The one with the dragon on it."
"If you call us from a hotel room and you're by yourself, we expect you to be naked. Take it all off."
"Play with the bear I gave you," Chris added. Discovering the manipulation of the tiny teddy bear-shaped jewel at her navel piercing excited her was an unexpected turn on to him. Geoff sent Chris another approving look as the throaty moans became little whimpers. Chris tilted his head, holding Geoff's gaze. Curling his fingers in the waistband of the pajama bottoms and brief shorts, he lifted both over Geoff's erection and pulled them to his thighs. Geoff moved his hand to block him and Chris intercepted, curling an iron hand around his wrist. As he bent, he took Geoff's hand with him, twisted it around, up and over, so Geoff's palm was now resting on the back of Chris's head. Meeting Geoff's bemused gaze, he lowered his head farther. He curled his fingers around Geoff's cock, straightening it up so he could cover it with his mouth and slide down it, slow and easy, to the root.
Smelling that familiar scent of male arousal up close and personal was another turn on, as was touching a cock he'd thought about almost more than his own. But the real charge was Geoff's reaction. His thighs tightened up like rubber bands, his eyes became jeweled slits, lips firm and totally edible.
Guy had a decent stick, about the same size as Chris's, though a bit longer. Like their body types. Both of them big enough not to get pushed around, but Chris had more girth and Geoff had more height. He'd never given a guy head, but he pretty much knew how he himself liked it done. He'd thought of it plenty of times, usually with Sam doing the honors in his fantasies. He slid himself off of Geoff, slow, working his tongue over the base of the shaft, curling around the corona. Geoff's hand was staying where he'd offered, on the back of his head, and a hard shiver of reaction went through him when his friend's long fingers constricted on Chris's hair, pushing him back down on his cock.
Sam was making little sighs and moans. It was like listening to the rise and fall of the ocean. On his own next stroke up Geoff's shaft, Chris lifted his mouth from him. "Sam, have you gone down on Geoff? Has he put you on your knees and made you bring him to climax with your mouth?"
"Yes . . . God, yes. I loved it. I loved how he looked while I was doing that. The way he responded . . . oh . . ."
Yeah. Chris met Geoff's heated gaze, and went down on him again. Geoff's grip was going to yank hair from his scalp, but premature baldness was a sacrifice Chris was prepared to make. Reaching between Geoff's slightly spread thighs, he cupped his balls as he tugged on him with his mouth. Geoff's hold slid to the side of his neck, and Chris could feel his pulse pounding against the heated palm. "So how did you like it when Geoff was inside you?" he asked Sam. "Was he too rough? Do I need to be rough with him now?" He curled his tongue around Geoff's glans, giving it a teasing lick followed by another nip that had Geoff shuddering.
"Oh . . ." That idea had seized her imagination, though she rallied enough self-preservation not to put her Dom at his mercy. "No . . . yes. It felt good . . . and hurt, but in the good way. Like he was taking every part of me, fucking every part of me. I want both of you inside of me in every way." Her voice was breathless again, and Chris imagined her hips lifting and lowering against her fingers, her knuckles glistening with her sweet honey.
Chris swirled his tongue over the head of Geoff's cock and probed the slit. Geoff's hips bucked up.
"Bastard," Geoff muttered. He pinched Chris's nape, hard.
"That would be my response." There was laughter in Sam's voice, and a whole lot of sex, her voice pouring over Chris like warm oil. "What are you two doing?"
"Mind your own business," Geoff said. "Chris, we shouldn't let her come. Let's keep her so hot that the moment she steps into the house, we can just strip her down and fuck the ever-living shit out of her. And make her beg for more."
Geoff's eyes were firebrands now, his mouth tight as Chris slid up and down, slow. He tasted as Chris had expected. Heat and male, the salted musk of semen, and below that, something important. The flavor of a male who was uniquely his. The way Chris had hoped he would taste.
"Oh . . ." Sam implored. "Please . . . I want both."
Both of them? Or she wanted both things, permission to come in the hotel room and having them fuck her half to death when she got home?
"Yeah. I think Geoff's right." Before Geoff could respond, Chris had his mouth back over his cock. The man drew his lips back in a feral snarl as Chris started to work him in earnest, drawing him deep, sucking in his cheeks, working his way up the thick shaft. Shoving his hand between Geoff's legs, Chris captured his balls once more, cradling them, working them in his fingers as Geoff's hips lifted and lowered further. Geoff kept one hand on the back of Chris's head, the other looking for purchase next to him, gripping the sheets near the cell phone.
"What are you . . . two . . . doing? Please tell me . . ." Sam was obviously still stimulating herself as they'd required, but the desperation in her voice said she was close enough she was having to concentrate to obey, to not come unless they gave her permission.
"Chris . . . is sucking on my dick," Geoff said in a growl. Chris shot him a look, bit him, and earned a hard pull of his hair. "I had the pleasure of taking his ass earlier in the night and he has an overdeveloped sense of noblesse oblige."
Chris scored him with his teeth, even harder this time. In response, Geoff reached around Chris's body, keeping his grip on his hair with the one hand as he yanked down his shorts with the other so he bared his ass. Geoff clamped down onto the meat of one buttock. The guy was always stronger than Chris expected, using that grip to tug him closer, shift his hand so his fingers were deep in the crevice, playing over the still-slick rim of Chris's ass. His cock shifted into overdrive, erect enough to bounce off his abdomen as he worked Geoff's dick in his mouth.
"Oh . . . God . . . please . . ." A feminine sigh, tremulous and needy, came through the phone.
"Take your hand from yourself," Geoff ordered, though Chris heard the strain in his voice. "I agree with Chris. You're going to hold on to it for us. Just for us. Tell me you understand."
"Yes . . ." There was petulance in the tone, telling them exactly how close she'd been.
"Yes, what?"
Chris's own heart skipped a beat at that sharp tone.
He had to admire Geoff's ability to multitask. Because there was no doubt he was having an effect on Geoff's concentration. He was fucking Chris's mouth aggressively, pushing toward the back of his throat with rough demand.
"Suck me harder, you bastard," he whispered, pinning Chris with a gaze of molten fire, browns, greens and golds all swirling together.
Chris obliged, and Sam's voice came through the phone, laden with emotions so heavy they infused what was swirling between the two of them with additional tension.
"Yes, Master," Sam managed.
Geoff jerked, and Chris got a weird charge out of it himself, hearing her use that word instead of sir. She hadn't meant it in a mocking manner. Not at all. "You put your hands above you, leave your legs spread wide and listen to us," Geoff said.
Chris raised his head. Geoff's hand slid to his throat, holding him there. "You should see him, Sam. His lips are slick from going down on me, and his cock is so big his shorts can't hide his erection."