Owning Corey (3 page)

“Nice place,” Corey says.

“Thanks, hon. Have you got an address yet? I need to get it updated in our system when you do.”

He shifts uncomfortably on his feet. “I haven’t found a permanent place. I’m still living out of the Blackwood Motel.”

Christina grimaces. “Ew. Are there bugs?”

“Not that I’ve noticed.” He swings the twelve pack down from his shoulder and scans the room. “Where’s the fridge?”

“Follow me,” she says.

While they put things away in the kitchen, I make my way over to the pristine white leather sofa I helped her pick out only recently. It was the best thing they had at Peebles Fine Furnishings. I usually try to shop locally, but in the case of furniture for my own house, I was forced to order online and visit tons of antiques shops. After putting so much money into remodeling and updating an old home, it would be a travesty to destroy it with trailer furniture.

This sofa is nice enough for Christina’s stark contemporary decor, though, and the leather feels soft. As I sink down into it, I’m instantly glad we left the party early. The room is dark, illuminated only by the glow of the street lamps through the white curtains, and what little light filters in from the kitchen.

When I close my eyes, my thoughts take a dark turn, and I’m remembering the night Christina and I christened the sofa. We’d planned on watching TV, but fifteen minutes into the show I had her bent over the back of the couch, skirt hiked up to her waist and panties around her ankles. There was no romance that night, no politeness or niceties. I held her down by the nape of her neck, her firm alabaster ass presented in the perfect position, and watched my cock sliding between her legs, felt her sweet warmth gripping me...

The sound of laughter jolts me, and I realize I’ve been dozing and having one hell of a dream. I’m hard as a rock now, and I reach down to adjust myself, rubbing ever so slightly, wishing she and I were alone so I could do something about it.

Instead, she’s giggling with Mr. Muscles in the kitchen. I can’t hear what she’s saying to him, but I recognize the low, sexy tone of her voice. She’s flirting with him again.

“I’m still here, you know,” I call out, instantly regretting my words. I’m really not myself tonight.

Corey comes out first, carrying two beers. He tosses one to me and sits on the other end of the sofa. Christina pops the movie into the player and lowers herself gracefully between us, crossing her legs and dangling one of those infernal red shoes from the ends of her toes. She slides her hand across the leather seat toward me and rests it against my leg, but she doesn’t come closer. She sits at an even distance between me and Corey, and I wonder if she’s baiting me, trying to tweak that alpha aggression that’s been threatening to surface all evening. I have to resist, though. There’s no sense in making a scene over a woman who’s about to be my ex-girlfriend.

When the first grainy scene of the movie comes up, Corey chokes on his beer, spewing a trail of foam across the carpet.

“Sorry,” he gasps, still struggling to catch his breath.

One look at the screen tells me what’s got him so shocked. There’s a naked woman standing in an under-decorated bedroom just letting it all hang out when her doorbell rings. She tries to look surprised, but I’ve seen better acting in a high school drama club.

“This isn’t
Return of the Living Dead,
” I say.

Christina shakes her head slowly without looking at me, and I can see her confidence ebbing.

“You went to the back room, didn’t you?” Corey asks, his voice raspy from his choking spell. He wipes beer from his lips with the back of his forearm.

“Christina, look at me.” I grasp her chin in one hand and force her to face me. “What is this all about? What were you thinking?”

“I just thought… we might…” She seems to search for the right words. “Well, I have this fantasy of… being with two men at the same time.”

She waits for a response, but I don’t know what to say. I’ve been totally blindsided by this. Here I am thinking she’s trying to replace me, but what she’s actually trying to do is… God, I can barely even bring myself to say it in my own mind.

Corey lets out a low whistle and shakes his head. “Didn’t see that one coming.” He leans forward with his elbows on his knees and looks around Christina to catch my eye. His expression is serious at first, but then the corners of his mouth twitch upward, and I realize he’s about to laugh.

Suddenly I have the urge to laugh, too. In the midst of this situation, it seems absurd, but the sound bubbles to the surface before I can call it back. Corey tries to hold his laughter in, but it bursts out through this closed lips in a noisy blast of air. He barely gets his beer settled on the end table before he rolls off the couch and onto the floor in a twisting fit of laughter.

Within seconds we’re both giggling like a couple of schoolgirls. Christina looks back and forth between me and Corey, her mouth hanging open. I almost feel sorry for her, but I just can’t help laughing. I can tell it’s a defense mechanism, because it doesn’t feel like normal laughter. It’s more hysterical than humor-induced.

“You guys think this is funny? Are you laughing at me?”

I grab her hand and try my best to stifle the laughter. It’s hard to stop, because it keeps welling up and tickling my belly. It doesn’t help that Corey is still rolling around on the carpet. He’s definitely lost it.

“Christina, I’m sorry. It’s just quite a shock.” The laughter threatens again, making it hard to speak. “I’ve just never really considered doing anything like that. Not for real, you know?”

On the movie, the woman has answered the door and invited two shabby looking men into her bedroom. One is a plumber, the other a carpenter. You can tell by their dollar store Halloween costumes. But then they won’t be wearing them for long.

“It’s just a fantasy of mine, Ben. I thought maybe you would be game. You seem so up for anything in bed. You’re the one who started tying me up, and you taught me how to do anal…”

I clear my throat and glance nervously at Corey, feeling more than a little exposed having my sex life aired in front of a stranger. Unfortunately, he’s calmed down and hanging on every word we’re saying.

“You can’t just pop a porno in on a couple of unsuspecting guys, honey. Corey and I have barely even met, and now you’ve got us…”
imagining being naked together, fucking alongside each other.

I shudder. Those are not really the kind of thoughts a guy wants to have in a room with another dude.

“This is a seriously bad movie.” Corey’s attention has shifted to the television, where one of the men is lying on the bed, cock in hand. The woman is climbing on top of him, awkwardly positioning herself with the help of the second guy. For a moment, all of our eyes are glued to the screen, watching to see how it all unfolds. The volume isn’t loud, but we can hear the exaggerated and unmistakable sounds of porn sex commencing.

“Have you ever done that?” I ask to no one in particular, staring blankly at the screen.

Both Christina and Corey say
no
and shake their heads.

“Me, either. I came close once in college, but only because my roommate and I were drunk and horny as hell, and there was only one girl. We were a study group, supposed to be cramming for a Biology test, but that fifth of J
ä
ger said otherwise. My roommate ended up passing out, and I screwed the girl.” I smile to myself at the memory. At the time, it had seemed like some great victory.

“So if you considered it for her, why not me?” Christina is now on the verge of tears. “It took a lot for me to ask this of you. The least you can do is think about it.” Her brows crease. “I thought this was every guy’s fantasy.”

I open my mouth to speak and close it again. I don’t even know how to respond to that.

“Um… I think you’re confusing that with two girls and one guy,” Corey says quietly. “A threesome with two girls and one guy is a popular straight male fantasy, at least if the porn industry is any indication.”

“What, are you some kind of porn aficionado?” I ask, suddenly irritated enough to lash out.

“Hell, no, Ben. Are you?” He meets my glare with one of his own. “You’re the one who knows all the seventies porn titles by heart.”

“Hey, you knew it, too.”

“Boys,” Christina yells. “Please don’t start. This might have been a bad idea on my part. I just didn’t know how to go about bringing it up. I’d envisioned this going down a lot differently, like the two of you would start drooling and staring when I turned the movie on.”

“Men are not mindless sex zombies, Chris. We don’t just trance out every time sex comes on the screen. Besides, you and I are supposed to be dating. I know it’s not official, but you could’ve had the courtesy to warn me before you brought someone else in. We don’t even know who this guy is.” I point at Corey, who looks patently offended. “He just blew into town, lives in a freaking motel for God’s sake. Was this his idea?”

“Alright, now,” Corey says, standing up and towering over us. “I don’t have to put up with this bullshit. I’m just as shocked as you are. I thought I was coming over for a movie and a couple of beers. Why would you think it’s my idea?”

“I don’t know. Everything was fine before you showed up. For all I know, you’ve got a hard on for her. Or me. Maybe you’re trying to use Christina to get to me. What were you two talking about at the party, and in the kitchen? Were you plotting this thing out?”

Corey’s mouth presses into a tight line, and the veins on his neck bulge. “That’s a messed up thing to say. It’s your girlfriend who’s propositioning me for a threesome. As I see it, I’m the least to blame of anyone in this room. Maybe you’re the one with the hard on.”

“I’m not gay,” I say.

“Yeah? What makes you think I am?”

“Well you could certainly pass for it looking like that.”

Corey’s mouth drops open. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

I’ve just taken a nosedive into social impropriety, and I can tell I’m about to drown in it. Maybe I can fix it. “Uh… I mean you look like one of those queer underwear models, with their pretty-boy faces and perfect bodies, and your mouth…”

Fuck. What am I saying?

“Did you just say my mouth looks gay?” he asks incredulously. “And as for the pretty-boy face and perfect body…” He rakes me with an exaggerated once-over, his manner so heavily tinged with aggression it gives me chills. “I could say the same about you, doctor. Are you sure you’re not queer?”

“Hell, no,” I roar, hoping to intimidate him like he has me.

Christina jumps between us just as we’re about to square off. “Please,” she screams. “Would you guys please just sit down and watch the movie? This was all my idea, and neither one of you are queer. You’re both gorgeous, muscular, virile, intelligent men whom I happen to find very attractive. But if you’re going to act like this, maybe I should just go to the bar and pick up a couple of random guys. I probably won’t find any with your pretty-boy faces and perfect bodies, but at least maybe they’ll be interested in some kinky sex with a beautiful and willing woman.”

That gets my attention, and the buzz of anger running through my body begins to subside. “You’re right.” I take a couple of deep breaths and step backward away from Corey. “We’re probably overreacting. I’m just a little taken aback by this whole thing.”

“Me, too,” Corey agrees, offering a little dimpled smile.

Pretty-boy faces and perfect bodies. Jesus, I feel like an idiot.

We sit down and try to watch the movie. The threesome is going at it hot and heavy by this time. The chick has a dick in each hole, and she’s loving it, or at least acting like she does.

“I guess it might not be so bad,” Corey says. “Maybe we wouldn’t have reacted so badly if we just knew each other better, Ben. I mean, I’ve never thought of a threesome as being gross or anything, have you?”

I struggle to come up with an appropriate response. “I suppose not. I’ve never thought of it as gross or shameful, or even that particularly kinky. It’s just different when it’s… imminent.”

“Imminent?” Christina squeals. “That means it’s going to happen, right?”

I look at the screen again, then at Christina, then at Corey. She’s made it perfectly clear how she feels, but I can’t read his face at all. “Give me a couple of days to consider it.”

She smiles, then looks expectantly at Corey.

He nods once. “Yeah, let us have a couple of days to get a little more comfortable with each other, and then we’ll decide.”

Christina bounces up and down on the sofa. “Yay. I’m gonna have three-way sex with two of the hottest guys on the planet.” Then she looks guiltily at me. “If you decided yes, that is.”

I’m a little disturbed that my girlfriend looks so damned excited at the prospect of bringing another man into our bed, and even more disturbed that I’m considering it. Especially when I had planned on breaking up with her tomorrow. There’s a current of foreboding humming just below the surface of my consciousness, like something bad is coming, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

3

I DON’T budge until well past noon the next day, and by that time Christina and Corey are gone. I am so glad I don’t have to face him and try to make small talk. I wonder if Christina gave him an early ride on her way to work, or if he walked. His motel is only a few blocks away, as is everything in this rinky-dink town.