Authors: Cat Grant
Fingers trembling, she stripped off her sweater and slacks, bra and panties, before climbing onto the bed. Both men watched in rapt fascination, then suddenly realized there was something they’d forgotten. They tore open their condom wrappers to attend to it. After, when David twisted around to face Aleks and pull him down for a long, deep kiss, Colette felt such a surge of heat pour through her, she was certain there must be steam trickling from her ears.
“Bravo,” she murmured. “But I’m feeling neglected. Can we remedy this situation, please?”
They crawled up to meet her, blanketing her skin with kisses and caresses. Aleks plunged his tongue into her mouth while he played with her nipples, twisting and pulling, hot shards of pure sensation zinging straight to her clit. A nudge to David’s shoulder told him that’s where she wanted him. He happily obliged, sliding down to nestle between her thighs. They had her so close to the edge, it took only a few swift licks and flicks of David’s tongue before she shuddered and cried out, pulsing hot and sticky right into his mouth.
She began to float in sweet, languorous aftermath, but her own taste clinging to his lips revived her. Then the sight of him sharing that taste with Aleks instantly ramped her desire back into overdrive. Their commingled breath wafted over her skin, two sets of lust-brightened eyes now trained on hers.
Poor David looked a bit desperate, his chest rapidly rising and falling, his neglected cock swollen with arousal—and he hadn’t even touched himself, except to roll on the condom. Aleks could easily last awhile longer, but it was unfair and cruel to keep David hanging. Time to give their sweet boy some relief.
A gentle tug, and he rolled back on top of her, the tip of his cock poised at her entrance. “It’s all right,” she whispered. “Come in where you belong.”
They hadn’t done it with him on top in quite a while. Not since San Francisco, since before the night he’d fallen to his knees and begged her to take him in hand. She’d forgotten about that slow, delicious ache as he eased inside and began to move. She’d forgotten about the adoring look in his eyes, as if she were the last person in the entire world.
Flattering, yes. But she wasn’t the only one here, and he needed to be reminded of that. “Why don’t you give him something else to concentrate on?” she whispered to Aleks.
The evil glint in his eyes told her he’d taken her meaning. He grabbed something from the bedside table then scooted down behind David and planted his face between his cheeks. David let out the world’s longest, deepest moan, every muscle in his body going instantly taut.
Then, of course, he started thrusting harder. Oh no. This would never do. “Not yet,
mon cheri
.” She placed both hands on his waist, holding him until he finally slowed down. “You come when I say, remember?”
“J-Jesus, Colette… You’re killing me…”
He’d dispensed with the formalities. Ah well, she could hardly blame him. She didn’t know of any other man who could hold it together this well with his cock buried in a nice, warm cunt and another man’s tongue up his ass.
Or rather, another man’s lubed fingers. Aleks had graduated to step two—which, from David’s slack-jawed expression, had just taken him to a brand-new level of sweet agony. It didn’t take long before he started thrusting again—backward this time, onto Aleks’ hand.
“You want that big, gorgeous cock inside you again, don’t you?” His only reply was a ragged gasp that left her suppressing a chuckle. “I don’t blame you.” She glanced over his shoulder at Aleks, who looked a bit on edge himself, sweat dappling his skin from forehead to waist. So much for willpower and restraint. “Let’s give our boy what he needs, shall we?”
She could’ve sworn she felt Aleks enter him as vividly as David experienced it himself, and not only because of his loud groan or the ecstatic look on his face. Not even because of the extra weight pushing her deeper into the mattress. It was more of a feeling of completion, of true unity. All three of them, joined in mind and spirit before, now entirely in body for the first time, parts of a whole coming together—true, resonant and
right
.
David hovered above her, fucking and fucked, the conduit melding them into one. He took everything they had to give, his breath coming in deep, racking sobs, barely holding on. God, he was so strong, so beautiful. He made her proud. But even she knew when enough was enough.
“Let it go,
mon cheri
,” she whispered finally. “It’s time.”
It started as a tiny ripple that soon roared tornado-like through all three of them. Wrecked and breathless, they tumbled to the mattress in a tangle of sweaty limbs. Luckily, David and Aleks had the presence of mind to roll off her before they finally collapsed, groaning and gulping down air as they cradled her between them.
“You’re coming back to Paris with us, yes?” she asked once they’d all floated back to earth.
David gazed up at her, his head now pillowed on her belly. “No arguments here. I guess this means next year I’ll be singing exclusively in Europe. Not that I mind, but—”
“You can sing wherever you like. I’ve learned my lesson. No more interfering with your career.”
“Colette, it’s okay. I don’t want to be away from you—either of you—for weeks at a time anymore. Buenos Aires cured me of that.”
“Then you won’t go to Buenos Aires again. But New York is fine. You can’t have an international career without the Met, after all. Even San Francisco—”
“There are these little inventions called the airplane and the telephone,” Aleks cut in, propping himself up on one elbow. “There’s no reason we can’t talk every day while you’re out of town. And with Colette retiring, there’s no reason she can’t travel with you sometimes, or come visit you for a few days. And the orchestra does give me time off every now and then. I’m confident we’ll work it out.”
David looked at them both, his face wreathed in a dreamy smile. “Okay, I’ll stop worrying. I mean, we’re together, and we’ve got love on our side. Which means there’s nothing we can’t handle, right?”
“No, indeed,” Aleks murmured.
“There’s not much I can say to top that,” Colette replied. So she drew her two men close and kissed them in turn, sealing their union the only way she knew how.
The End
Author’s Note
Part of the fun of writing fiction lies in creating one’s own universe. That said, let’s put straight a few facts from the real music world:
British-born conductor Antonio Pappano is indeed one of modern opera’s biggest movers and shakers. In 1996 he led a production of the original five-act version (in French) of Verdi’s
Don Carlos
, at the
Théâtre du Châtelet
in Paris—but sadly, never Buenos Aires or New York. He is currently the music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
American lyric soprano Renée Fleming never sang
Manon
with my hero David Lewis, but she has indeed performed the role many times at the Met and elsewhere.
Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi is the current music director and principal conductor of the
Orchestre de Paris
.
Nicolas Joël is the current general director of the
Paris Opéra
.
Even if you’ve never attended the opera, chances are you’re familiar with Bizet’s
Carmen
. It’s one of the most accessible operas in the modern repertoire. Some of its more memorable tunes, including the Act One overture and Carmen’s
Habañera
, have become part of Western popular culture. Not bad for an opera that was a complete and utter failure when it first premiered in 1875!
If the music here has piqued your interest, I can recommend a few recordings.
For
Carmen
, my favorite DVD performance is the recent Live in HD Metropolitan Opera broadcast, starring tenor Roberto Alagna and the fabulous Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca. These two burn up the stage together. Quite possibly the sexiest
Carmen
I’ve ever seen!
On CD, my favorite performance is, in a word: Berganza. The great Spanish mezzo Teresa Berganza. Her recording (with the equally great Plácido Domingo as José) is available on Deutsche Grammophon.
If you’re looking to expand your horizons beyond one CD recording, I also recommend the incomparable Maria Callas’ reading on EMI. She’s one of a handful of sopranos who’ve attempted the role, and she does a fine job.
For the other operas mentioned, I recommend the
Théâtre du Châtelet
production of
Don Carlos
with Roberto Alagna, Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila, conducted by Antonio Pappano. It’s available on DVD from Kultur Video.
There’s also a ravishing DVD production of
Der Rosenkavalier
from Baden-Baden, starring Renée Fleming, Sophie Koch and Diana Damrau, conducted by Christian Thielemann. Available from Decca.
And if you’d like to read a first-hand account of the day-to-day life of a real opera singer, I highly recommend
The Inner Voice
by Renée Fleming (ISBN 978-0143035947). It proved an invaluable resource for me in writing this novel.
Multi-published author Cat Grant lives by the beautiful sea in California with one persnickety feline and entirely too many books and DVDs. She’s now hard at work on another hot, sexy tale for Ellora’s Cave.
Cat welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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