Gemini (3 page)

Gemini kept silent while Quinn and Jace looked at Clay.

He kept a grim eye on her while he spoke. “If she were to be pregnant, she wants to be able to claim the kid doesn’t belong to the prick she married.” He lifted his cynical eyes off her to make contact with the others. “She came gunning for you, Quinn. The two of us are just bonus.”

Gemini sighed. Some of it was true. “Because of the bar,” she said, looking only at Quinn. “For a job. Because I have the experience. I can work for you and do a good job. It wouldn’t be just—charity.”

She thought she heard Clay curse under his breath, but when she paused, he did nothing but continue that hard glare.

“The other part I just thought of last night. Outside of Reno, I got a ride with a couple of stoners. They offered me more than just a lift. I turned them down but, later, I thought I should have done it. Then Bryce wouldn’t want me back. He’d never want a child who wasn’t his. And he couldn’t parade me around as his cherished, pregnant wife unless he was certain he was the father.

“So then, I thought it could be you, Quinn. Cap—” She shuddered in a breath and let it out slowly. “Cap loved you.” She looked across the bar. “All of you. It seems crazy, I know. But I thought maybe it wouldn’t be too much to ask. I was going to ask Quinn. But, in a way, all three of you would be even better.”

“You want to have our baby.” That was Jace, now seeming much less interested in the whole idea.

“Not exactly, though I suppose it’s possible. I’ve miscarried three times. I’ve given up hoping for it. I just want to be able to tell Bryce it’s not his, if I do conceive. If I have. The timing would be too close to tell.”

“She’s a nut job, guys.” Clay was apparently done holding his tongue. ”Quinn, you ought to toss her out of your bar right now. Whatever you do, don’t get on that crazy train with her.”

Quinn’s green gaze was on her. He left it there a long time before he looked over to Clay. “You don’t see any sense in it?”

Clay huffed out a breath but Jace spoke first. “I get it. I can see how it could work. Especially if she’s not really going to have a baby.”

“Gemini,” Quinn said. “You can’t be asking for another miscarriage.”

“No,” she said. “I’m not.” God knew, she wasn’t. The first had hurt. Even as a midwife, even knowing how frequently pregnancies were lost, Gemini had been stunned and deeply wounded when it happened. The second one, too. More so, in a way, in that she had to think it was more than chance, worse than just bad luck. She had to consider then whether something was wrong with her, whether it might be impossible for her to ever have a child.

The third time, she’d conceived against her will. The shine was off her relationship with Bryce. She didn’t want him. She didn’t want his child. And so the guilt which accompanied that miscarriage, mixed as it was with relief, was unbearable.

She’d sworn it wouldn’t happen again. But Bryce had found her pills and taken them from her. She’d been isolated by then, just as Clay had said. She didn’t have a midwife friend she could go to for another method of birth control, but only the infertility specialist Bryce had chosen for her.

She didn’t want another miscarriage. She didn’t want a pregnancy. But there was one thing she didn’t want the most.

Bryce’s child.

“I just…If I’m pregnant, I just want to have hope. I want to be able to think it might not be his. And I want to be able to say that to him.” She raised her eyes to Quinn’s. “That it’s not his.”

Quinn scrubbed his hand over the whiskers on his face.

* * * *

He could totally do her. Jace had spotted Gemini the minute she’d walked into the bar. It had pleased him that she’d made eye contact a couple times while he’d watched from his bar stool, even though he could see her interest was mainly in Quinn. Then she’d stayed past closing, and, as Quinn had lowered the blinds at the windows, his mind had started up a nice little fantasy. Three randy men, one hot, loose woman, and a dark bar.

Jace had gotten semi-serious with a woman a few months back—it had kind of seemed like the time for it. But it hadn’t worked out, and he’d pretty much lost his appetite for one-night stands with women who were pushing the edge of too drunk for legal consent.

So it had been a couple months, and Gemini’s invitation had him hard from almost the first moment. He could see Quinn was interested in the girl, too, and Clay’s cynical—realistic, maybe, he had to admit—outlook hadn’t really damped anything down all that much.

Yeah
, she was their buddy’s sister. But she’d asked. As a favor.

“I’m willing to oblige.” He ignored Clay’s grunt of objection. “Set her up here on the bar, Quinn.”

Quinn met his gaze for a minute, then turned to look at Gemini. With some sort of signal from her, he put his hands on her and hiked her up so she was seated on the bar. She touched her fingers to his shoulders, and leaned into it when Quinn took her mouth.

“
Jesus Christ
,” Clay swore.

Jace ignored him. That kiss was hot, and he was going to get in on it. He reached across, put his hands on her hips, and tugged her across the smooth wood of the bar top. When he spun her around to face him, he was tucked between her spread legs. He brought her closer, snugging against the V of her thighs.

Her brown eyes were soft, her lips already wet and ripe from Quinn’s kiss. And she was ready for a little ride on the wild side, because she set her hands at the back of his neck. She met his gaze steadily as he drew her hard against him. He brought her off the bar and let her slide down his body until he could plant her ass on the edge of a stool. Then when he pressed against her, their parts lined up just right.

It was a safe bet she’d had some unhappy sexual experiences with the toad she’d married, but that didn’t seem to be holding her back now. He had his palm low on her back, steadying her as he pressed his hard cock into her center. He held her there, rutting firmly into her, while she looked up at him. She held his gaze as he moved his other hand to her breast. He was drawn in, lowering his mouth toward hers while he searched out her nipple with his thumb.

Her breath shuddered when he found it. He took a good hold, squeezing her pretty hard, and liked the way her eyes flared and she gave a little cry. He kept hold as he went for her mouth.

God
, she was hot. And sweet,
sweet
. She let him open her mouth, accepted his tongue. He practically snarled as he took her. He heard it when Clay cursed again and was aware that Quinn had come out from behind the bar and stood beside him.

Other than that, he was all about this woman. He delved into her mouth, stroking deep. He worked her nipple, tugging it along with the rhythm he used as he rocked his cock against her.

She was wickedly responsive, like a reluctant novice suddenly sprung from the nunnery. She arched, handing her breast right over to him and rubbing herself against his eager dick.

He wouldn’t have held back, wouldn’t have stopped for anything. But Quinn nudged, shouldering his way in, and broke Jace’s mouth away from Gemini’s with a hand slid between them. He turned the girl’s head so she saw him. She looked dazed as her gaze went to his.

Quinn looked harsh and needy. “Both of us, Gem?” he said. “Both of us?”

“Yes,” she said, not hesitating in the least. She moved one hand from Jace’s neck to take hold of Quinn, too, and let him have her mouth.

* * * *

Gemini saw the heat in Quinn’s eyes as he bent to take her mouth. Her hand on his shoulder tugged, bringing him closer, faster.

She should have been pushing him away. She should have raised her voice in objection. At the least, she should have used a bit of caution, should have approached this proposed love-making with careful deliberation. With dispassion.

That’s what she’d been thinking. Something like a sacrificial virgin, she’d lay herself back and let herself be taken. Let them—Jace, Quinn, Clay, if he were willing—rut into her. That was all she needed. Just their semen, deposited determinedly inside her body.

She wasn’t expecting this. Nothing so hot and needy, sweaty and taking. Compelling.

But Quinn had kissed her. He’d looked at her, then at each of his friends. Finally, he’d lifted her up onto the bar. She was above him then, just a bit given his height. He clasped her head in his hands, she put her hands on those broad, powerful shoulders, and they came together. She couldn’t really say he’d brought her to him, because she’d come. She’d gone to him all on her own power.

She thought he’d meant it to be a gentle kiss. She thought he’d been taken by surprise just as she had.

In just a flash, it wasn’t gentle or cautious or dispassionate. It was fiery hot, entirely consuming. She’d seen both the stunned surprise and the desperate need in his eyes when they’d separated, when Jace had taken hold of her and tugged her away.

But he was back now, after an equally devouring kiss from Jace, and she wanted him.

She wanted them both. Jace’s hands were like magic, bracing her against the thrust of his cock, working her nipple like he knew every hotwire nerve ending she had. Her body was hot and needy, wet and desperately wanting.

She felt a wild desire, like had never happened to her before, like she’d come to think was never in the cards for her. But it was happening, and she was going to give over to it, by God.

Quinn kissed her long and deep. Then Jace took her back, holding her chin while he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Hands—Quinn’s, it must have been—worked open the front buttons of her sweater. Like they were telepathically connected, they both leaned back when the last button released.

Each man took an edge of her sweater and pulled it aside, then stood back to take a good look.

Intense interest on their faces testified to their approval.

Bryce had ordered all of her lingerie from Embrasse Moi. Wearing it for him had made her feel like his pampered pet, his indulged whore.

In front of these men—Quinn and Jace in front of her, eyes blazing with interest, and even Clay who, she could see, had moved a little to secure his own view—she felt like a hot temptress.

Very deliberately, in a move she didn’t know she had, she arched a little. She displayed herself, lifting her breasts, framed by the pearly silk of her demi-bra, for their inspection. For their delectation.

They liked it. Quinn and Jace both drew in harsh breaths. As though drawn by tractor beams, they both moved to take a nipple into their mouths.

She was consumed by the thrill of it—their mouths hot and needy, drawing hard on her, pulling at her nipples. She arched further, reflexively, and put a hand to each head to hold them in place. Somebody’s fingers found their way between her thighs and she arched into that, too, lifting up off the stool as those fingers worked her.

Gemini moaned, her body a blissful mess of sexual stimulation. From her right, Quinn slid a hand onto her ass and gave her an assist as she worked herself against those wicked fingers—Jace’s, it was now clear.

She was panting, nearly crying out with each breath when they lifted their heads. They looked down at her—Quinn and Jace from either side, Clay looking from over their shoulders. Following their gazes, she took her own view. Her bra was transparent over her nipples now, the turgid peaks clearly visible.

“Jesus,” Jace swore. “You’re a fucking beauty, Gem.”

Quinn was breathing hard as he sank the fingers of both hands into the low waist of her jeans. He tugged, bringing her off the stool to her feet and backed her against the bar. Moving his fingers to the center of her jeans, he opened the button and ratcheted the zipper down.

Jace was rubbing his hands over her breasts, palming her, then working her nipples. They both watched her carefully when Quinn slid his fingers into her jeans.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh.” Gemini knew she sounded like a surprised virgin, learning pleasure for the first time. “Quinn.”

He touched her clit. Two fingers, just far enough into her jeans to reach that twitchy, needy center of nerves. She shuddered and put a hand on his forearm, uncertain if she was asking for something more or something less.

Even if she didn’t know, he seemed to. While Jace tore her bra down to bare one nipple, while he took it into his hot mouth and drew another wail from her, Quinn moved his fingers. Watching her, experimenting, he gently circled. Pleased when she moaned, he wrapped his other hand into her braid, tilting her head back, arching her body further. Securing her, making her vulnerable as they stimulated her.

Quinn’s fingers knew magic. He leaned into her, his mouth close enough that he took her breath, his eyes boring into hers. Then, with determined intent, he stroked her until she cried out in orgasm.

She wasn’t expecting it, hardly even knew to expect it. She’d had orgasms before—over time, Bryce had learned her well enough that, when he cared to take the time, he’d bring her off.

But she’d never been the focus of such intense, purely male determination to give pleasure. To insist on it. Her body shuddered and wracked. Her knees turned to jelly and she sank down. Quinn’s final strokes against her clit were harder then, her own weight increasing the pressure. Jace circled her waist with his arm and brought her in close, relieving her of the need to stand.

Quinn leaned over her, waiting just long enough for her to catch her breath before he took her mouth. He kissed her, long and hard, a seductive, determined possession. When he was done, he lifted back and waited. He was watching for something, and it took a long moment for her to realize what it was.

His fingers weren’t simply pressed against her any longer. They were inside her, deeply, completely. He rocked his hand just a little, stroking her. He moved inside her easily, pointedly informing her of what he already knew—that she was wet and needy for him.

That was what was in his eyes, what he waited for her to comprehend. He owned her. He’d taken her without her even being aware of it. And her body was entirely obvious, unashamedly ready for him, wanting him.