Hunks, Hammers, and Happily Ever Afters (9 page)

They both groaned and picked up the pace, moving so fast that I had to use her perfect round ass for purchase as I teased and tormented their flesh, trying to touch as much of both of them as I could reach. Emerson’s sac was nice and tight, an irresistible lure. I couldn’t stop to ask if it was okay. Where was the line? Had we already crossed it? I so didn’t frigging care.

Gently, I took one of his balls between my lips and rolled it softly on my tongue. His legs stiffened and she cried out at his renewed onslaught while I used my fingers to give her a little more sensation.

Another cry and her pussy started contracting near my face. Wetness squeezed out around his shaft and I abandoned his sac to lap it up, not stopping at his obvious sounds of completion.

Third wheel? Not freaking likely.

Quivering and panting, they collapsed together while I eagerly swallowed the remnants of their pleasure. Not his, unfortunately, since he wore a rubber but hers made up for it. Damn, I was already addicted to her sweet pussy.

I kissed my way up her spine, tasting the salt of her perspiration. Every time my mouth brushed her skin she jolted, as if I was sending her up all over again.

“Bedroom,” I rasped, rising. “Now.”

Emerson scooped her up and she giggled, clinging to him and reaching out an arm to pull me in close as well. She gave me a quick kiss, her eyes so bright I could’ve floated on that feeling for a week.

Nothing—absolutely nothing—was better than bringing my lovers pleasure. And since I was so good with a hammer, I was about to drive that point home.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Emerson

I’d never fucked so much in one night.

Even with what I’d told Lily about what our first time would be like, there was no denying we’d skewed toward the dirtier side of the equation. Which was just fine, because she was damn near insatiable. What had happened between the three of us last weekend had apparently just been a preview of coming attractions.

Emphasis on coming.

Now we were sprawled out on JC’s bed, eating wings and pizza, and Lily was wearing one of JC’s few button down shirts, the cuffs way too big and dangling down her hands as she delicately nibbled on a chicken wing. She’d spilled sauce from the box of wings on her sweater—we’d told her not to bother getting dressed—so she’d had to throw it in the washer and grab something of JC’s. I’d wondered if it might bother me to see her wearing another man’s clothes. Nope, it only turned me on more.

At least when the clothes belonged to this man, the one who’d sucked on my balls and licked my dick while it plunged in and out of Lily.

I didn’t know how much she’d realized was happening between JC and me. She’d had to have, right? But she hadn’t blinked. Then again, if she was truly into guy-on-guy porn...

Yeah, I wasn’t going there, not now. My dick was already practically sore. I didn’t need the image of my girl getting off to the idea of two guys in my head right now. And she was my girl.

I couldn’t let her go after what we’d shared. I didn’t know what that would mean in the long run. All I knew was that I just wasn’t strong enough to walk away.

“So your parents still haven’t been by to see the new place?”

JC sprawled on his stomach and gnawed on a chicken wing like he hadn’t eaten in a year. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I’d been starving too. “My mom’s busy with her groups and society stuff. She’s chairing a new committee at the church. Dad’s...well, Dad. When he’s not being surgeon extraordinaire, he’s golfing.” He shrugged. “I’m not about to drag him away from the greens for something like this.”

She stroked his hair. “What about your brother?”

Another shrug. “Ray’s got finals at John Jay. Maybe in a couple weeks he’ll make it by. Right now, I’m just letting him do his thing.”

I swallowed the last bit of my pizza crust. For the entire time I’d known JC, I thought he was cocky and irreverent, the kind of guy who never let anything bother him. But it was obvious his family’s disinterest did. Evidently, there was a lot about the guy I’d missed.

Like the fact he wants to suck your dick.

“You’ve gotten here all on your own. You have your own business, and you work so many long hours...” She picked up his free hand and circled her finger around his palm. “Look at all these calluses. You’re a damn beast.”

He waggled his brows. “Sure you’re not talking about my prowess in the sack, babe?”

Shaking her head, she gave him a shove. “Jerk. I’m being serious for once.”

“Me too.” He dumped the chicken wing in the box and shut the lid. “It is what it is, you know? Yeah, I have my own business, and yeah, we’re doing okay. My dad says he’s proud of me, even recommends me to some of his doctor buddy friends when they need work done. But in his eyes, I’m an unskilled laborer. Any idiot can drive in some nails and—”

“That’s not true.”

They both looked up at me. JC was uncharacteristically silent, and I knew I’d have to complete my thought.

“You’ve gotten some really high-profile jobs. The Cage isn’t some low-brow operation. I’m sure other places put in bids. You wouldn’t have been chosen if your work didn’t speak for itself.”

“He’s right.” Lily nodded vigorously. “My recommendation to use your company wouldn’t have meant squat if you didn’t have so many testimonials on that fancy new website of yours.”

JC cleared his throat. “Thanks, guys. Seriously. I needed to hear that tonight.” He sat up and stared down at his hands. “I thought I didn’t care they couldn’t make time to see this place, even though I was so proud of getting it. Of being able to afford to get it. But I guess I was lying to myself.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “No man’s an island, right?”

“No, and no man should be. That’s why you’ve got us,” Lily said quietly, tipping her head against JC’s.

He smiled, his golden-brown eyes softening. “Yeah, and believe me, I’m grateful for it.”

“Good. You should be. Because not every guy gets two...” She broke off and frowned. “Whatever we are. Speaking of that, what are you guys doing after the fight next Friday night?”

I blinked at the topic change. “Probably recovering in my case.”

JC popped a pepperoni in his mouth. The guy ate them like they were Tic Tacs. “Friday night usually means I’m stretched out with a couple of beers and some Icy Hot. Why?”

“There’s this club thing.” She bit her lip. “The girls are going. Jenna and Carly, from The Cage?”

“Carly? Gio’s wife? She’s the size of a house.”

Lily gave me a hard stare. “And what, that means she can’t go out and have a good time?”

“Not saying that. Just saying unless we’re talking some kind of bridge club, I can’t really picture Carly at a club in her current state.”

JC laughed into his fist. “She might be preggo, but she’s smoking hot.”

“Tell her husband you think that, dickweed.”

JC just kept right on laughing.

Lily rolled her eyes at both of us. “They asked me if I wanted to go, and I said I would. I figured I’d ask you guys, but if you’re not interested—”

JC sobered. “Both of us?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah. Not like I can ask one and not the other. I’m with—” She fiddled with the tails of JC’s shirt. “I’m with both of you.”

Nodding, I swallowed. She was so frigging sweet and brave. So much braver than I was in a million ways. “We want to go.”

JC nodded. “Hell yeah.”

She smiled and cocked her head. “Really?”

“Absolutely.” I smiled back at her and forced away thoughts of what Jenna and Carly would think when they saw the three of us together. Or what rumors might be circulating by the following Monday at the gym.

For once, I was going to follow Lily’s example and stop being such a freaking coward.

“Yay. Awesome.” She giggled and pushed her hair out of her face. “God, does sex make you drunk? I haven’t had a drop tonight and I feel dumb.”

“You forgot good. Good sex can do that for sure.” I patted her thigh, revealed beyond the tails of JC’s shirt. I was pretty sure she hadn’t put her panties back on, and trying to get a glimpse between her thighs was both a torture and a turn-on. “Then again, it might just be fluid loss from going and going for,” I picked up my phone and flipped it back on, “Christ, five hours? No wonder we were fucking starving.”

“Five hours? Oh shit.” Lily snatched my phone, her mouth falling open. “It’s two-thirty.”

Our eyes met and I groaned. “Damn, your dad.”

“You can say that again.” She scrambled up, nearly upending the food boxes and pulling the sheets off JC’s messy bed.

I rose to pick up my jeans. I wasn’t naked, but damn close to it. Sitting around in my boxers in front of JC and Lily felt entirely too natural already.

Shockingly, JC hadn’t bothered with clothes at all. And Lil might as well have been nude for all the good that shirt did to hide her assets.

“He’s probably waiting up. You know he worries.” Lily tugged on her panties and jeans. She really had been naked under the shirt. Even in the midst of Lance-related stress, I winced as my cock throbbed at the missed opportunity.

JC rolled over on his belly and propped his head in his hands. He sure as hell didn’t seem concerned. “Yeah, what’s up with that? Your pops realizes you’re almost twenty-one, right?”

She glanced at me and we exchanged a look. I’d always wondered if JC was just as blasé about the situation with Lily as he appeared to be about everything else, but all at once I realized he didn’t know. She’d never told him about what had happened to her mother. She’d also probably never mentioned what had happened to my dad, or how we’d come to know each other and bonded over our shared losses.

Part of me wanted to tell him. Now that we were all involved, for lack of a better word, it didn’t seem like something he should not know. But it wasn’t my secret to tell. Lily’s part of it anyway. And telling mine led right back to hers. Our lives had been woven together for so long it was almost impossible to extricate them.

I didn’t want to.

“Her dad’s a cop,” I said, answering for her. I picked up my shirt and pulled it over my head. “You know how cops are. Lily’s his only daughter, and it’s just been the two of them for so long.”

“What happened to your mom?”

Her throat bobbed and she shook her head, shoving her feet into her shoes. “We gotta go. He’ll be freaking out, even though he knows I’m with Emerson. He can’t help it.”

JC rolled out of bed, his face devoid of any expression. I’d begun to realize he was plenty capable of feeling more than he let on, but damn, he was good at pulling a stone face. “So Emerson’s like the get-out-of-jail-free card?” Before she could answer, he cupped her face and gave her a long, lingering kiss. “Dream of me.”

When he finally pulled back, she blinked up at him. “Um. Yeah. Okay.” She blew out a breath. “Wow.”

I had to smile as I pulled on my shoes. JC turned toward me and I held up a hand. “Skip the kisses in this direction, dude.” I was only half serious.

If what I’d just seen—and what I’d felt earlier—was any indication, there was nothing at all bad about being kissed senseless by JC O’Connor.

“As you wish.” He grinned and lifted his hands, backing up.

“C’mon, Em.” Lily was already on her way to the bedroom door. “We gotta hurry.”

“Yeah.” I fistbumped JC and we headed down the hall to the front door.

He didn’t mention Friday night again, and we didn’t offer any additional information. I didn’t know what was going to happen with Lily’s dad, but the plummeting feeling in my gut told me we wouldn’t be in exactly the same place afterward.

We drove back to her place in silence. She didn’t need to tell me she was worried. The way she kept fretting and tugging at JC’s shirt told the story without so many words. During one of the times when she was yanking at the cuffs, I realized we hadn’t thought to grab her sweater on the way out.

Another dad might not notice his daughter was wearing a different top than when she’d left. That dad wasn’t Lance Matthews.

I wanted to reassure her, but what could I say? She knew as well as I did that hell was probably to pay.

Her dad wasn’t a bad guy. Far from it. He just got keyed up when Lily didn’t check in and let him know she’d be later than usual or was staying over with a friend. Tonight, she’d just spaced out and forgotten.

Sex-a-thons will do that to you.

I parked on her street and came around to her side of the car to open the door, but she was already climbing out. I extended my arm to her, wanting to give her comfort, and she bit her lip, wavering.

This was the first time she hadn’t hurtled right into my arms, and man, it stung even if I thought I understood why. She was trying to stand tall to face her dad. And apparently stand alone, which didn’t sit well with me.

Didn’t she get I’d never let her face anything on her own, especially something like this?

We jogged upstairs to her floor in that same tense silence, then she unlocked her apartment door and slipped inside. I followed her though I wasn’t sure if she really wanted me to come in or not. Maybe it would be easier if—

“Nice to see you decided to come home.” A light flicked on in the living room and Lily startled, coming to a halt. “I was beginning to wonder.”

“Daddy.” She started to rush into the other room, then stopped and fingered the sleeve of JC’s shirt as if she’d just realized she hadn’t changed. She pushed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’m sorry, we lost track of time.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” I added. “It’s my fault.”

“No, it isn’t.” Lily shook her head. “It was mine. I wasn’t paying attention to the clock and I should’ve called and told you I was running late.” She moved forward and knelt beside him on the couch, her long hair falling forward to frame her face. “I didn’t mean to worry you, but I’m fine. You know nothing can happen to me when I’m with Emerson.”

“That thought has eased my mind on many nights, but not when it’s almost three a.m. and you haven’t even called. I know I’m old-fashioned, and you kids today don’t want to be bothered with your parents anymore. Think we’re old fools.”

“No, that’s not true. Of course not.” She gripped his arm and tilted her head, and I could’ve sworn I saw wet tracks on her cheeks.