"Maybe he needs to take them off, Master. To be more comfortable."
"She's always thinking of our well-being," Geoff said, eyes glittering. "Do it."
He'd already pulled them down over his ass, so Chris finished the job, kicking them away. But as he bent back to his self-appointed task, he had a demand of his own.
"Don't you hold back on me this time," he said in a low tone. "Trust me the way you want me to trust you."
Geoff stilled at that, but Chris wasn't waiting for it to become a debate. He wrapped his fingers around his dick, and put his mouth on him again, heated breath, a teasing swirl of tongue all along the velvet shaft. He wanted that orgasm to spill, and then they'd work out the other shit.
Geoff shuddered, bucked, and Chris moved with him. He knew Geoff had been hurting for it when he left Chris's room, and Chris took full advantage of that, pushing him past the point of no return and who-the-fuck-cares-about-hurt-feelings. Maybe he was learning from Geoff. Learning that when you held the reins, it made it easier for the guy to let it all go and trust that things would work out. Just as he'd said.
Geoff let out a tearing, grunting sound of male lust. Chris heard the soft hum of Sam's encouragement through the cell phone. Geoff's fingers dug into his ass like pincers, telling Chris they'd leave bruises. That was okay.
Sam's moan came through the phone. "Please," she begged.
He didn't consider himself a sadist, but when he'd said "You need the reminder," he'd been thinking of Sam in some hot little dress at a club, with guys ogling her. Even if she hadn't flirted or anything like that, Chris wanted to keep her climax out of reach. Her wanted her focus to be on getting back to them so they could take care of her needs in ways no one else could. In ways that would make it hard for her to walk, if they had anything to say about it.
Christ, where was all that coming from? The surge of testosterone made his dick jump against his stomach again. It caught Geoff's eye like a raptor spotting prey. A blink later, his fingers wrapped around it. But he couldn't do anything with that hold except hang on when Chris sucked in his cheeks and pushed him into release. The vein pumped beneath the clamp of his lips, and Geoff's body tightened up all over. When Geoff started to come, he lost his grip on Chris's cock, fingers sliding along his thigh as his focus was sucked into the orgasm.
The first flood of seed in his mouth, Geoff's come, was a rush. Chris took some of it down, letting the rest of it spill out over his fingers so he could grease Geoff up further, slick it over his balls, work him in his hand while Geoff bucked and thrust. Yeah, it made Chris harder, but Geoff had already taken him over that ledge once. He could always go back to his room and jack off.
He wasn't a sub like Sam. He wasn't going to be looking for permission to give himself release. Yet Chris knew he likely wouldn't jack off on his own, any more than he'd think about why he wouldn't. He was a guy. He had every right to avoid self-analysis. He had the broken chromosome to prove it, to validate that decision. Plus he had better things to contemplate right now.
He lifted his head to look at Geoff, the closed eyes, parted lips, the rise and fall of his beautiful chest. Geoff had been a skinny adolescent who hadn't grown into his limbs and filled out with muscle until his senior year, but it had been worth the wait, because he was all rangy power and grace now. His fingers were still grazing Chris's thigh and buttock, little random caresses. When his gaze slowly lifted, his eyes were mere slits. The inscrutable look he'd used on him a couple of times tonight could scramble Chris's brain, but this expression, where heart, mind and soul were all tangled up in his gaze, made Chris feel like Geoff stood inside him.
"Sam?" Chris said quietly.
"Yes." She sounded so temptingly desperate. Geoff's lips curved.
"I want you to stroke your fingers lightly over your pussy," Chris said. "Like it's a flower I've handed you. Just gentle and slow. Light, so very light. No more than a brush of butterfly wings."
He could imagine her doing it, her moistening her lips with her tongue, the quivering strain of her naked body, her pale long limbs. Geoff pushed himself up on his elbows. He drew one knee up, making a space so Chris sat down, Geoff's calf against his hip. He laid a hand on Geoff's bent knee, his gaze sliding down over the guy's softening cock. The natural repose did nothing to make it less distracting. He'd had that thing in Chris's ass, and God help him, Chris wanted it there again.
He had a feeling Geoff wouldn't be asking him when that moment came. Chris thought of all the ways he could fight him, and how Geoff might prevail anyway . . . because that was what they both wanted.
"Oh . . . oh . . ." Quiet moans came through the phone as Sam . . . obeyed him.
"So light," Chris murmured. "We could keep you doing that for hours, keeping you so close to the edge. Couldn't we?"
"Yes." She sounded close to tears now, a state sure to twist his own heart. But holding the unyielding gaze of the Dom lying on his elbows, his legs casually sprawled, the cock Chris had sucked to climax within touching distance, held him back.
Geoff spoke then, his voice thick.
"I think you pissed off our boy here, Sam. I think we both did tonight. Brought out an interesting side to him. What did you do?"
"I don't know. Please, Chris . . ."
"Keep doing it," Chris said. "And you know what you did."
"I . . . I went to a dance club."
"What did you wear?"
"A . . . uh . . . that red dress. The one with the spaghetti straps . . ."
Geoff's lips twisted in understanding. "The one that clings to your tits and ass and is about four inches south of legal. Did you wear heels with it?"
"Yes, but I--"
"Showing off your body. Those shoes give your hips that I want to be fucked sway, don't they? Yeah, you're going to have to be hurting for it, baby. He's possessive, our boy."
Geoff's glance went to Chris's hand, resting on his knee now, his fingers curved over Geoff's flesh like he wasn't planning to let go anytime soon.
She blew out a breath. Geoff tilted his head toward Chris, a silent Your play. Chris picked up the phone and murmured into it. "If you really don't want to wait, I'll let you come, Sam. Because I love you."
Quiet ensued. Geoff's expression changed, becoming more thoughtful. He sat up, crooking his leg on the spread and letting the other dangle over the edge. It put his knee against Chris's hip. Chris glanced down at the floor, his two braced bare feet next to Geoff's dangling one. He laid his hand on Geoff's knee again, held it the way he held Geoff's gaze, as they both waited for her answer.
It didn't surprise him, though it made him love her all the more. "I . . . I'd rather wait until I can be with you. That feels right. Horrible, but right."
Chris smiled at the resolve in her voice, mixed with a What the fuck am I thinking? surge of hormones he understood all too well. "Come home to us soon, then. And Sam? Wear something that you don't mind having shredded when you come through the door."
He tilted his head toward Geoff, a quizzical look to see if he had anything left to say. "No panties," Geoff said. "We don't want to wait that long. Got it?"
"I hate you both. Yes sir. Sirs."
Chris blinked at that, and Geoff grinned. Taking the phone, he clicked off, but he sent a quick text, turning it toward Chris so he could see what it said. Travel safe. We love you.
"She said you owed me pillow talk," Chris said after a moment. "Cuddling."
Geoff shuddered. "Women."
"Hmm." Chris studied him, his fingers tightening on Geoff's knee. He knew when his expression changed the tone between them, because the vague amusement died out of Geoff's face. "You don't get to check out on me because I hurt your feelings with the truth," Chris said evenly. "You don't get to act like you're in control when you know it's not that straightforward. So don't play bullshit games with me and draw back to teach me a lesson. It's not going to work that way for me."
Geoff tossed him a narrow look. "Because you're such an open book. You a
nswered my question, but you didn't add anything to it, anything that helps me understand what you are feeling. Would you care to draw me a fucking road map? Or is this like one of those twenty-question games? Is it here or there? Not there, not here, somewhere in between, and I have to wait until I hit it dead square to get a clear answer from you? Fuck you, and I do not mean that literally."
Chris rose then, pulling his shorts back on so he wasn't standing there naked. "You know how I think, how I figure things out. You want me to lie to you to make you feel better, I can't do that. I can't feel what I don't feel."
Geoff's expression was hurt, pure and simple. Damn it. Chris stepped toward him, but Geoff shook his head. "I get it, all right? Leave it there. Let's go to bed."
Chris stepped back, frustrated. He couldn't say what he needed to say without getting into the areas he simply wasn't ready to talk about. Geoff usually understood that better. Maybe he did and he was insisting anyway. He moved to the door, knowing that Geoff was right, they needed to let it rest for now, but he stopped at the threshold, turning to look at him. He glimpsed frustrated misery on Geoff's face before it was gone, wiped away into that neutral look.
"You hoping for a kiss good night?" he asked Chris.
"No, asshole." Though the minute he said it, he remembered the heat of Geoff's mouth on his. "Have you ever let anyone do to you what you did to me tonight?" Not that he really wanted to talk about other guys with Geoff, any more than he did with Sam. Why Geoff's male lovers bugged him in a way the female ones didn't was another mystery, but there it was.
He couldn't tell if Geoff was going to answer, but he waited him out and finally got a response. "I've usually done the pitching. And I've never let someone else be on top . . . so to speak." He spoke slow, staring at the wall now instead of Chris. "Might be interesting to feel the other side of things . . . with a person I trusted."
Chris's heart beat a little faster. "Am I in that group?"
"Do you want to be?" Geoff arched a brow at him, eyes becoming cool.
Chris set his teeth. "You do get that we're not your damn family, right? We're not the ones who turned their backs on you. You treating me with the same mistrust isn't the way to figure this out."
Geoff's expression turned into a torn flag, reflecting the war he'd lost with his family. "I trust you, Chris." He said it seriously enough Chris knew he meant it. "You and Sam, more than anything. But this is a new area for me. I have to figure out how to navigate it."
"Right." Maybe Geoff was right. Something he'd done tonight had dug up a lot of stuff in Chris. All that holding back, waiting, not thinking about the things Chris wanted, in order to preserve the treasure he already had, had stirred a lot of shit that had built up around that treasure. "Well, here's a big tip. If you want me to open up to you, tell you what's going on, it goes both ways. If you go all honest with me, and I'm not ready to respond in kind, don't draw back and bullshit like that. Don't do the Dom-poseur thing where you hold on to all the reins, try to make me and Sam rip our guts open for you while you give us nothing."
Geoff's gaze fired up at that. "You think it's all an act?"
"No, I don't. I just know how it's supposed to be. You think I haven't watched and listened, when we went to those parties and clubs together? You can feed me a line that the deprivation is part of the Dom thing, but that kind of deprivation is what we just did with Sam, getting her hotter, making her the focus, making her eager to be with us. What you did in my room? That was just an excuse to keep your feelings locked away, to not risk yourself. I deserve better than that. And I didn't think you were that kind of coward."
Geoff whitened. Chris pivoted before he could let the recoil hit him in the chest and make him apologize, soothe. He was right--he knew he was. But it didn't make him feel any less like shit. He knew the guy's most vulnerable spots, and he'd just taken a deliberate shot at one.
He returned to his room and flopped into the hammock, rubbing his face with both hands. Shit, shit, shit. How long had they known each other? Why would Geoff think they needed to play mind games like this, when they knew each other in and out?
Because they didn't know this area. Geoff was right. Hell, the sex alone was plenty to wrap his mind around. The potential had been there for some time, waiting, but it had been unexplored up until now. Maybe that was the deal. When Geoff was deep inside of his body, Chris had held on to that shore, refusing to be cut loose, because his reaction to the Dom thing had hit him out of left field.
Before it started he'd have said it wasn't his thing. Yet it had been so easy to work side by side with Geoff just now, embracing that Dom stuff toward Sam. It had startled yet pleased him, how much he'd suddenly enjoyed playing that game with her and Geoff. And yeah, that caveman reaction he had, and how he'd picked up the reins so fast to top her, had been this side of What the fuck? But what had rocked him on his foundation, what had turned that little disagreement of a few moments ago into something uglier, was how he'd responded to Geoff's orders himself.
Yet he couldn't say everything wasn't quid pro quo. A couple of hours away, Sam was wet, hot and willing for the both of them. Geoff had fucked Chris into near oblivion, and in return he'd compelled Geoff to spill his release in Chris's mouth. During that short, blissful time, Geoff had given himself over into Chris's hands fully. Suddenly, it made him feel more like a dick for taking a shot at Geoff.
When Chris's dad had walked out on his mom when Chris was nine, it had left Chris with two things. One, a determination that he'd never let anyone he loved down that way, would never abandon them. It had also left him a virulent nest of anger way down deep in his gut, which conveniently filled the hole his dad had left. That trigger could be tripped by the strangest shit, like someone wanting him to lay it all out there, make himself completely vulnerable. Like Geoff's question had.
Tell me you've always wanted me to fuck you. In the dark, in the light, even when we were fucking other girls . . . The question was far more than what had been on the surface. Geoff had been asking for everything. Or had he?
Chris scowled. The problem was, he had so much feedback coming from so many directions he wasn't sure how to process it all. He didn't do much of anything fast. That wasn't his style. He liked to take his time, get his head wrapped around things. This was like having to stuff a whole meal in his mouth in one bite. Whereas Geoff had a rapier-fast mind that could evaluate and act in a blink.
Or was he just throwing up a smoke screen of bullshit, avoiding the real reasons he hadn't reacted to Geoff the way Geoff had hoped he would?
"It's like playing one of those damn game shows."
Chris looked over to see Geoff silhouetted in his door again. That was how this had started, less than a couple of hours ago. Now, just like with Sam's actions of a few days ago, things had changed again. Irrevocably.
"That one where you have to risk the winnings you've already got to answer the million-dollar question," Geoff continued. "If you get it wrong, you lose it all; if you get it right, well, you win everything. If you choose not to answer, you get to keep what you already have, no risk." Geoff shrugged uncomfortably. "I get it, because what we have, that's already so much to me. But then . . . what you said, I thought you meant you didn't feel the same way."
"No, Geoff. Shit no." Chris realized then Geoff hadn't separated it out in his mind as he had. "It's not that at all, man. I love you, plain and simple. I don't want anyone but Sam or me to be with you, ever. It's the other stuff I can't figure out and, because they seem like a package deal with you, it felt like if I said yes to one thing, I was agreeing to all of it."
As Geoff digested that, his eyes became a little less hooded. "No line item veto."
"Yeah." Chris shrugged. "We started as friends, and I never questioned how you and I seemed even closer than a lot of guys were. How I preferred going out on dates together. And, fuck, that night when we were having sex with those two cheerleaders in the same room . . . It felt so close to what I really wanted, but
I couldn't quite get it straight in my mind, so I left it there . . ."
He swallowed as Geoff's eyes took on a different expression and he stepped closer. "Then there was the night I brought Rhonda Hammond back to our place . . ."
Geoff grinned. "You took her to the movies, but you came back to the house right after to drink beer. She French-kissed both of us. Rhonda was an adventurous girl, God bless her."
"Yeah." Chris met his gaze and the smile faded from Geoff's face. "When we were on the couch, both up against her, for a blink, I let myself think about what it would be like if she wasn't there."
"Chris."
Chris shook his head. He had to get it out, work through it the way he did. Geoff understood. He fell silent, waiting him out, but Chris couldn't miss the laser focus of his gaze, the taut muscles of his face.
"She was nice, but she didn't matter. Not like that sounds. I mean, in terms of my being in love with her, or wanting to fall in love with her. It has to matter. Really matter. That's why it was always hard for me to make it work unless you were in the room. Then Sam came along, and it was like this whole new level . . . I felt, yeah, this is the way it was meant to be all along." He shook his head. "I'm making no fucking sense."
"No. Everything you're saying makes perfect sense. You're the type of guy who sees something way before any of the rest of us. But you don't act on it until we catch up. Until someone who matters takes the lead." Geoff's gaze burned into him. "Keep going."
Chris set his jaw. "You came home one night, before we met Sam, and I knew you'd been with another guy. Just a hookup, because you never mentioned him, but that was when I knew. It hit me in the chest like a battering ram. As long as you were with girls, you were still . . . we were still the two of us. And that was okay, though something about it felt off. Until Sam. She put a balance into it I haven't exactly figured out, but she did."
Chris took a breath. "You've been standing inside me for so long, Geoff, I forget sometimes you're a separate person. I expected you to understand what I meant, when I couldn't say what you wanted me to."