Rule of Three

Chapter Twelve

“You should just stay with us,” Chris said, then clenched his jaw. Fuck. Where the hell had that come from?

Dag laughed as if it were a joke. They were in the kitchen making dinner. Kassidy had gone over to her mom’s place after work, just for a quick check in, and Dag had had the idea to make dinner for her. A damn good idea, Chris had to admit, ashamed he hadn’t thought of it himself. Kassidy was running herself to pieces between her mom and her work since the accident two weeks ago.

“Seriously,” he said, stirring the pot of pasta. “I mean, you’ve been in Chicago for nearly a month. You’re spending a fucking fortune for a hotel room and you’re hardly ever there.” He didn’t look at Dag. His stomach tightened into hard knots.

Since that night when Kassidy had—Christ, what had she done? Sucked them both? Pulled them close and rubbed their cocks together? Yeah, that and a whole lot more. Since then, Chris had found his head swimming with sizzling images, his body responding with heat and hardness. He tried to get those pictures out of his mind, the vision of his cock and Dag’s together seared into his senses. The feel of Dag’s cock against his, so goddamn wrong. So goddamn hot.

Dag nodded slowly. “Yeah. I guess that’s true. But what does Kassidy think about that?”

“She’ll be fine with it.” Chris was sure of that. He hadn’t talked to her about it, but he knew she’d be okay with it. What he didn’t know was why the hell he was even suggesting it. Was he sick? Was he asking for something? Was he daring himself to see what he’d do with Dag around all the time?

“Well…okay. I do seem to end up here most of the time. Not sure how much longer I’ll be in town.”

Chris didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. He struggled for composure. “I thought maybe you were thinking of moving back to Chicago. Permanently.”

Dag’s face, too, stayed neutral. His wrist twisted as he opened a can of tomatoes. “I haven’t decided that.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Chris rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, tomorrow you can get your stuff and bring it back here.”

The sound of the door opening had him lifting his head.

“I’m home!” Kassidy called. She appeared in the kitchen doorway, sniffing. “God, that smells good! Garlic! What are you doing?”

“Making you dinner. Hey, sweetheart.” Chris moved over to kiss her forehead, almost feeling relieved she was home.

“How’s your mom?” Dag asked.

“Doing okay. Still in a lot of pain.” Kassidy rubbed between her eyebrows and sighed.

“You look tired,” Chris said. “Go change and I’ll pour you a glass of wine. Dinner’s almost ready.”

“That is so nice.” She surveyed the kitchen. “Thanks.” And she disappeared again, returning moments later dressed in a pair of beige shorts and a white T-shirt. She accepted the glass of Chardonnay from him with a smile.

“I can’t believe you guys are cooking.”

“Gotta give Dag the credit.” Chris circled his hand around the nape of her neck and stroked. She felt tight beneath her soft skin, the downy hair at the nape of her neck tickling his palm. This had been a rough couple of weeks. “But I helped.” He grinned and took a swallow of his beer. “You’ve been running your ass off trying to look after your mom and stay on top of things at work. Thank god I didn’t have to go to Seattle. And thank god Dag was here to help out too. Thanks again, man.” He turned to his friend. Yeah, he was glad Dag was back. Then he remembered.

“Hey, guess what? Dag’s going to stay with us,” he told Kassidy. “He’s paying a fortune for that hotel room and he’s never there, so I suggested he just come stay with us while he’s here.”

She blinked at him. Said nothing. Her silence unnerved him.

“What?” he asked. Her lips tightened. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing’s wrong with that.” But her clipped words told a different story. Shit. He’d been sure she wouldn’t mind. He shot a glance at Dag to see if he’d picked up the tension. His frown told him, hell yeah, he had. Again, shit.

Chris debated with himself whether to push her right then and there, get it out in the open, or wait and have the fight in private. He sighed. Drank his beer. He was screwed.

Dag, the perceptive son of a bitch, chose that moment to go to the bathroom. “Dinner should be ready when I’m back,” he said as he walked down the hall.

Chris turned to Kassidy. “Hey, sweetie. I didn’t think you’d mind if I invited him to stay with us. He practically is, anyway.” He regarded her hopefully. His gut clenched.

“It’s not that,” she hissed, moving closer. “It’s just…you should have asked me first. This is my place too.”

“Yeah, I know. But like I said…”

“That’s not the point! The point is, you need to talk to me before you do stuff like that. We live together now, we make decisions like that together.”

“Um…yeah. Okay. I get it.” Sort of. Not. Women. Again, he blew out a long breath, but when her eyes narrowed, he realized he’d probably come across as pissed off and long-suffering. Okay. He was digging himself into a hole here tonight, despite the cooking of dinner. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I wasn’t thinking. Really. I won’t do it again.”

Except he probably would, because his logic didn’t match with her logic on this. Okay, yeah, he got that he needed to talk to her first about things, but what difference did it make if in the end she agreed? Hell, this was going nowhere fast.

Dag returned and they ate dinner, the atmosphere at the table just slightly less chilly than the wine they drank.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Dag finally asked, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest.

Chris and Kassidy exchanged a glance.

“Nothing,” Chris said.

“Nothing,” Kassidy said.

“Bullshit. Kassidy, are you pissed off that I’m going to stay here?”

“No.”

Chris watched now as the two of them shared a look. Maybe she wouldn’t be so pissy with Dag.

“I’m mad because nobody asked me,” she finally said, and her bottom lip jutted out just a little in a very cute pout. “That’s all.”

“I said I’m sorry,” Chris began.

“Yeah,” Dag said. “I was afraid of that. Sorry, Kass. I should have made him ask you first. Before I agreed.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

Chris pursed his lips. Apparently it was all his fault.

“You deserve the respect of being asked, at least,” Dag said. “Are sure you’re okay with it? Because I haven’t checked out of the hotel or anything yet. We can just keep going the way we have been.”

Her eyes got kind of hazy looking as she thought about something, and Chris wished he knew what the hell it was.

“No,” she said with a sigh. “Really. It does make sense.” She looked at Chris.

“See?” he said. “That’s what I said—”

“Chris!” She stared at him. “You are so damn stubborn! Would you just admit you screwed up?”

He pressed his lips together and took a deep breath. “I apologized—”

“But you didn’t even get why!”

She was killing him, and in front of Dag no less, but hey, if Dag was moving in, he was going to see it all, including him making a fool of himself over a woman. So be it. “Fine,” he said shortly. “I screwed up. I should have asked you. The fact that you agreed is beside the point.”

“Exactly. Thank you.” She beamed at him then at Dag. Chris shook his head, but something inside him relaxed and softened. Christ. He loved her. He didn’t want her pissed off at him. Much as he hated to admit to making a mistake, goddammit, it was better than living in a deep freeze.

“Double penetration.”

Kassidy peered at Chris, her hair a tangled mess in front of her eyes, having just spent the last half hour rolling around in bed with two naked men. Her lips throbbed from all the kissing and sucking and biting. Her pussy ached. She blinked at him.

Dag’s hand stroked down her back and over her bottom, lingering there.

Oh dear god.

“Double penetration,” Chris said again, voice low and husky. He touched her bottom lip with his fingertips. “Dag and I fucking you at the same time.”

Her eyes widened, her pussy clenched. Dag’s fingers teased the crease between her cheeks. She looked at him over her shoulder, stretched out naked on the bed. His eyes met hers. His fingers played—up, down, lower into her wetness, trailing a line of her own moisture back up. He tickled the base of her spine and she shivered.

“We’ve never…uh…done that,” she whispered. Her buttocks clenched at Dag’s caressing fingertips. Anal sex was beyond her experience…but she supposed not theirs. She licked her lips.

“We’ll make it good for you, sweetheart,” Chris said, kissing her shoulder. “I’ll do your ass. Dag’s too big for your first time.”

Her womb spasmed. She swallowed hard.

“We’ll get you nice and ready,” Dag said, still playing there. “You’re already so wet…” Again, he trailed moisture up between her cheeks, this time his finger pushing deeper between her flesh, stroking over her anus with a firmer touch. She quivered.

Chris slipped a hand down between her legs and played there too, him from the front, Dag from the back. Chris leaned forward to suck on a nipple, Dag dragged his tongue up her back between her shoulder blades.

Dag reached for a bottle of lube sitting on the table beside the bed. He opened it and squeezed some out onto his fingers then handed it to Chris. Dag’s slick fingers probed, brushing over her hole again and again until she felt herself softening there, just a little, and his fingertip pushed inside her. A small cry fell from her lips at the unfamiliar sensation.

“It’s okay,” Dag whispered, his mouth against the back of her shoulder. He licked her there, kissed her, withdrew his finger then pushed back in. Slowly. Her body adjusted to the intrusion, heat blooming there, spreading through her body.

Chris’s fingers pushed inside her too, into her vagina, and she felt his and Dag’s hands collide as they worked her. Dag lifted her thigh, opening her more to them. They owned her body, the two of them, knew it, worshiped it, owned it. And she loved it.

“I think she’s ready,” Dag murmured. “How do you want to do this?”

“You lie down,” Chris said, ever the director. “Kassidy, you get on top of him.”

After rolling on a condom, Dag stretched out and lifted Kassidy over him, hands on her hips. In a heated daze, she found his thick cock and held it as she lowered herself onto it. His size still amazed her, stretched her, filled her. When she’d worked herself down onto him, all the way, breathless and hot, Chris’s hand on her back urged her forward and she lay down on Dag’s chest.

He found her mouth and kissed her, long, wet kisses, while Chris now played with her ass from behind, kissing her, parting her cheeks, drizzling lube. “Relax,” he said. “Relax, sweetheart.”

“Don’t clench,” Dag whispered against her mouth.

“I can’t relax,” she whispered, her whole body tight and shivering. “I’m afraid…” She wanted to do it, but she was afraid it was going to hurt and she’d disappoint them if she couldn’t.

Dag stroked his hands up and down her back, fisted her hair, kissed her again. She felt the nudge of Chris’s cock at her anus, just pressing there and holding, not entering her yet. He rubbed a bit, sending a cascade of sensations over her body. Who knew all those nerve endings could be a source of such intense pleasure?

And then, one hand on her hip, he did push into her. She gave a sharp cry at the fiery sting. Her whole body tightened. Chris didn’t move, Dag pulsed inside her. “Okay?” Chris asked.

“It hurts,” she whispered, tears gathering in her eyes. “I want to, but…”

“Take it slow,” Dag said, stroking her hair.

None of them moved for long moments, hearts pounding, breath catching. She knew it must be hard for both of them to do that, and she willed her body to relax. She took a deep breath and buried her face against the side of Dag’s neck. “Okay,” she said moments later.

Chris pushed in a little farther and she jolted again, flames licking around her ass.

“Bear down,” Dag whispered in her ear. “Don’t try to tighten on him.”

She did what he said, and amazingly Chris slid in farther. Sensation exploded through her body, heat and light, wild and fiery. She cried out again. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” she babbled. She bit her lip, kept her face hidden, felt perspiration run down the side of Dag’s neck. She licked him there, warm and salty. He shuddered.

The wicked sensation of being filled by two men had fire streaking through her body, lighting up every nerve ending. She let out a long, deep groan of pleasure.

They began to move in her, finding a rhythm together, their cocks stroking not only her but each other, reminding her of the night she’d done that to them, that shockingly forbidden act that had brought them to orgasm so fast she knew they’d liked it, whether they’d wanted to admit it or not. She remembered how they’d leaned their heads together, how they’d clasped each other’s shoulders, their cocks joined in her hands, and her tummy did that flip of excitement. That had been a moment of togetherness she hadn’t felt in all their threesome encounters, where the two men had displayed some affection for each other as well as her. Could they feel each other inside her? They had to.

Her body burned, sensations sizzling over her flesh, a swirling pleasure inside her coiling up and building. It scared her, the intensity of it—she was afraid her body was literally going to explode with it, it was so huge and ferocious, so all-encompassing, taking over her and lifting her out of herself. She floated and flew, her body surrounded by an edgy shimmer of heat.

Four hands moved on her, two mouths, as Chris bent over to kiss her back, both of them thrusting into her in hard strokes, taking her body, taking her heart, taking her soul. When she did explode, she came apart, crying out over and over again, the sensations so sharply exquisite it was almost beyond bearing.

“Fuck,” Chris muttered, fingers digging into her hips. “Dag? You close?”

“Yeah.” The word was dragged out of him. His hands tightened in her hair, his hips moving beneath her. “Yeah…fuck…now…aw, Christ.”

With matching tortured groans, they came inside her, Chris flooding her ass with his hot come, and she couldn’t stop herself from crying out again. “God, oh god, oh god.”

They collapsed into a sweaty heap of bodies, gasping for breath, hearts thundering. All Kassidy knew was sensation, an erotic haze of dazzling pleasure.

They slept for a while, dozing lazily, then Chris disappeared into the bathroom to wash up, and came back with a warm wet cloth that he used to clean her. He’d never done that before, clean her up after sex, and the tenderness of the gesture made her insides go all soft, especially as Dag held her and gave her soft little kisses on her mouth, her cheek, her eyelids while Chris washed her. She felt so incredibly cherished and loved.

When she floated up from sleep a while later, the lamp still on, she studied both men—Chris’s light brown hair streaked with gold, his lightly tanned skin, faint shadow of beard and his big, muscled shoulders revealed by the sheets halfway down his back; and Dag’s sweep of silky dark hair across his forehead, his complexion swarthier, his beard heavier and darker in that bad-boy way. Her chest constricted—and then fear grabbed hold of her in a tight grip.

What was she afraid of?

She closed her eyes, fighting a wave of panic, wrestling with the urge to scramble out from under the covers and get the hell out of the bed. What had she done? What had they done?

She tried to breathe, slowly, filling her lungs, letting it out little by little. This had all been sexy and fun, but what they’d done had been so erotically intimate, she couldn’t help but be affected by it. Emotions rose inside her, a fierce, almost angry rush of intense affection—for both of them—including Dag.

She couldn’t feel that way about another man. She was in love with Chris. Since the day they’d met, attraction had deepened into lust and like and then into love. He was everything she wanted. So how could she be feeling this for Dag? Feeling…what felt like…love. A different love, because he was a different man, but no less powerful.

Tears burned her eyes and she covered her face with her hands.

“Hey.” Chris pulled her hands away from her face and rose above her, concern etching his forehead into furrows. “What’s wrong, sweetie? Did we hurt you?”

“No.” She rolled her head on the pillow and realized Dag was awake too as his hand came to settle on her tummy. “I’m fine. Just feeling…god, I don’t know what I’m feeling. Overwhelmed.”

The touch of their hands on her spoke only of tenderness and respect and affection—and made her chest expand and swell with the same feelings for them, and a longing to show them how she felt even if she didn’t understand it herself. She wanted Chris to know she loved him—he had to know she loved him, despite the confusion she was experiencing. But she also wanted Dag to know she cared too, because even though he was a tough bad boy who apparently didn’t need anyone, she couldn’t bear the thought of him feeling excluded, extraneous, unwanted.

Once again, she faced the dilemma of how to please two men at the same time. Last night they’d taken care of her, worshipped her, both of them at the same time, and today she wanted to do that for them. Faced with too many choices, she rolled over and climbed over Dag, kissing his chest, rubbing her cheek against the hair there, nibbling at his nipples. He jerked when she did that, encouraging her to do more.

“Oh sweetheart,” he groaned. So she licked and sucked there, and Chris got the hint and moved behind her. He stroked her butt with gentle hands.

“You sore, babe?” he asked, voice husky.

“A little.” She lifted her head to look at him over her shoulder, letting the invitation show in her eyes. “But I’m okay.”

She gave one last nip to Dag’s flat brown nipple then scooted down his body to take him in her mouth. She pushed his thighs wide with an urge to explore him, all of him, and her fingers found his tight balls, stroked over the soft flesh, lightly furred, tugged experimentally. She got another low groan, so her fingers continued playing as her mouth tasted him.

“Fuck me, Chris,” she said, long moments later. “While I suck on Dag.”

“Oh yeah.”

She let her fingers wander lower, behind Dag’s balls, and to her surprise, Dag lifted his hips to let her. She stroked around the puckered hole of his anus, remembering the sensations that had evoked in her last night. Was it as pleasurable for him? She hesitated, because once she’d tried this with Chris and he’d immediately stopped her from touching him there. She guessed some men didn’t like it, but Dag seemed to…love it. In fact, he pulled his legs back even farther.

“Yeah, baby, oh yeah…” His next words shocked her. “Lick me there. Lick my balls…” And when she did… “Fuck! Oh yeah!”

She dragged her tongue over the loose skin, felt the solid roundness inside, sucked one into her mouth and let it pop out. God, oh god, she loved doing this! She sucked his other testicle, then held his cock up, pushed his balls up too, and licked the taut skin below, inhaling the musky male scent of him there in that most intimate of places. Daringly she kissed his ass cheeks with nibbling kisses and then firmer sucks.

His moans of pleasure, his muttered words of encouragement drove her on and she buried her face there, licking and sucking while Chris entered her from behind. She was so wet he slid inside easily even though her flesh was still swollen and tender. She wished Chris would let her do this, because it felt so good, tasted so good, felt so absolutely giving and caring.

She licked her way back up and took Dag in her mouth, as far as she could anyway, he was so broad and heavy, but she continued to play with his ass with her fingers, daringly even inserting the tip of one finger into his hole. He gasped then groaned with pleasure, and her fingers moved in and out in small thrusts as she sucked him.

Chris filled her from behind, in the position she loved because of the deeper angle, the spot that he hit with every pounding stroke that lit her up inside and started the shimmering glow, the faint buzz of an orgasm beginning. Everything inside her tightened and then she lost her rhythm, her focus, too much to keep fucking Dag’s ass with her finger while she sucked him, she just couldn’t do it. Her orgasm exploded in her womb, sensation bursting through her body over every nerve ending, leaving her limp and breathless. Then Chris came too, holding her hips against him as he erupted inside her. “Kassidy, god, Kass, you feel good.”

When she could, she took Dag in her mouth again, holding her hand tight at the base of his cock, resuming her fingering of his ass, and sucked on him with greedy recklessness.

“Deeper…” Dag grunted, hips lifting. “Just a little…with your finger…deeper…yeah, oh yeah, right there. Jesus!” Then he too spurted, into her mouth, hot and tangy on the back of her tongue.

Chris held his weight off her until she released Dag. Did he know what she was doing to Dag with her fingers? The naughty act thrilled her to her core, and she wished Chris had seen it. Then Chris collapsed over her, rolling her to Dag’s side, once again the three of them a sweaty satisfied pile of bodies.