The Power of Love (17 page)

She frowned. “But I don’t want it.”

He sniggered. “Do you hear yourself? You
don’t
want to go to the beach?”

“No, I don’t.”

“How about the mountains?”

Gia glared at him. “I want to stay at home.”

“You’re always at home. Unless you’re running errands. And at the moment, home isn’t the haven it should be. You need to get out. Do something for yourself. You’re too isolated, love.”

“Are you listening to yourself? Since when was dedication to our family a bad thing?”

“It’s not, and I love you for putting our family first before everything else. But this is me doing that too. I’m putting
you
first because you never do that.”

“I can’t. There’s too much stuff to be done around here.”

He shrugged. “Tough. It can wait, and if it can’t, then get cracking because you need a break, and I’m going to see to it you get one.”

“Why? Why now?” She eyed him with suspicion. “Are you trying to get rid of me or something? Is this revelation of yours going to cause a stink and you don’t want me caught in the crosshairs?”

Silence settled, all the while he kept his features free from emotion, and then, he grimaced. “You’re too fucking clever for your own good sometimes, and while I would like it if you took cover for a bit…” His voice rose when she snorted in derision at his words. “I’m actually thinking of you. Luke was the glue, Gia. I think we both knew that. Can’t you see how that’s changing now he is the way he is? Can’t you see how you’ve stepped up to the plate? It’s a lot of pressure for someone so young, and for someone unused to being the backbone of our family.”

Despite herself, and though she was pissed at him for trying to lie to her, she felt her cheeks pinken at his praise. Because it
was
praise. She could hear it in his tone, see it in the soft smile he shot her way. The satisfaction she felt slowly burned away when realization struck, however. He was twisting things, trying to make her comply to his wishes. The manipulative SOB. “You think my being here, my living here is going to do more harm than good, don’t you? If it hits the public’s attention, I mean.”

His only reaction was a slight flex of his jaw, but that was the only answer she needed.

“Don’t lie to me, Josh. Ever again. Do you hear me? Don’t try to bullshit me, don’t try to coax me or manipulate me with pretty words. Tell me the fucking truth. I’m an adult. I’m old enough to understand.”

“Old enough to understand what?” Luke’s voice broke into her diatribe and unable to help herself, she glared at him.

What was it with this house? No one could have a fucking conversation or a moment’s peace without someone popping in and being a goddamn nuisance.

“That when Josh raises certain facts at your appeal, it’s best if I’m not here to sully your public image.”

Luke surprised her by snorting. “What public image?”

Josh twisted around to glare at him. “I’ve busted my balls trying to save your reputation, and yeah, your ‘public image.’ Do me the courtesy of respecting what I’ve had to do and what I’m going to have to do to clear your name.”

“Whoa!” Luke held his palms up. “I never asked you to do anything.”

“Bullshit. You didn’t have to ask. You’re my husband, Luke. It’s my duty to help where I can.”

“As nice as that is, if it involves segregating the woman we adore, then that trumps your bullshit.”

Josh got to his feet and looked moodily at Luke before returning his attention to Gia. “I’m not ashamed of you, or our relationship, Gia. And I know, wholeheartedly, that Luke isn’t either. But look at Lexi. Look at what happened at her school. Look at what we’re going to have to keep on facing through our lives… It’s one thing when it causes dissension at a local private school, but when it involves the army? And a case that could go national if news is quiet the day all this info leaks?” He shook his head. “I’m thinking of you, and I’m thinking of Lexi. We need to contain this.”

She studied him, saw he believed every word he uttered, but still, she pointed a finger at him. “I don’t disagree with you. I will take Lexi, and we’ll go, well, I don’t know where we’ll go, but for a trip. Whatever. Wherever.

“What pisses me off is the fact you lied to me, Josh. You tried to manipulate me. I won’t have that. I won’t.”

Josh ran a hand over his skull. The sound of his palm scraping against the short strands of his buzz cut was loud in the tension-riddled room. “You can’t take Lexi. It’s on public record that we’re her fathers.” He slipped his hand down to rub the back of his neck and suddenly, the floor took all his attention. “That’s why I fumbled with the truth.”

Pain speared her straight in the gut. She tried to control it, but the tiny whimper that escaped her was impossible to contain. He wanted to deny her very existence, to cut her completely out of the family circle.

The thought sent shards of agony careening through her system because though she knew, logically, he wasn’t doing that, it still felt that way. It still felt like she was the one to be ashamed of. The one who had to be shuffled off into a corner, like some batty aunt who was press-ganged into a “retirement village.”

When Luke stepped forward, anger written into the lines of his face, she held up a hand. “No. He’s right. I should have seen the bigger picture.” The words were hard to say, both emotionally and physically. Her voice was a rasp—it grated her own ears. “I’ll leave,” her mouth worked. “Whenever you think’s best.”

“For God’s sake, this isn’t necessary,” Luke shouted. He strode over to Josh and then grabbed his shoulders. Shaking him a little until Josh looked him in the eye, he repeated in a biting tone, “This isn’t necessary. Look at how much it’s hurting her. Look at what you’re doing to her.”

“He isn’t doing it to me,” Gia butted in. “It’s…we knew things would be tough along the way. This, what we have, it transcends normality. That means we have to adapt to survive or we die.” She pulled in a breath. “I can pull on my big-girl panties and take one for the team.”

Luke firmed his mouth. “I didn’t want this, Josh. I didn’t. When I appealed, it was a knee-jerk reaction. I should have accepted the charges and the dismissal. I never wanted to hurt this family, and certainly not Gia.”

“You think we weren’t hurt anyway?” Josh shook his head. “You’re off your rocker. How could something like this happen to you, and we’re not supposed to leap to your defense? Are you crazy?”

“There’s defending me and breaking up our family.”

“For fuck’s sake, it’s only for a short time. While the appeal is ongoing. Your CO’s more corrupt than Capone. I have proof he was trying to load his pockets during his time on the job. I also have proof he had a grudge against the woman you’re supposed to have assaulted. And I also have proof that the last thing he needed was for that woman to get married. On top of that, I have more evidence that Harrison is in deep, both over there and here. More than anyone could ever have imagined. He’s about to lose everything. Thanks to my investigation.”

Luke scowled. “How in the hell do you get that kind of proof?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah. It matters. What did you do? Hack into a satellite?” Luke sniggered at his joke, his smile disappearing when Josh failed to react. He blinked, then, nostrils flaring, he grabbed Josh by the collar of his BDU jacket. “Tell me you’re not fucking serious.”

“I
am
fucking serious, and it’s okay. General Jarvis was in on it, and the investigation he started on my intelligence has given us the proof we need. The sources are impenetrable.” He hesitated, then corrected, “Well, they are now. I had other sources, but now he has the info he needs to lead his inquiries.”

“I thought you were trying to defend our family, not put us in more fucking danger. I don’t believe you, Josh. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about you, you jackass.” Josh mimicked Luke’s pose, grabbing him by the collar, but rather than hold him aggressively, he forced him so close their mouths were inches apart. Josh swiftly removed the distance between them and connected their lips. It wasn’t passionate, it was angry. Dominating. It was to shut Luke up, to keep him quiet, and to make him accept the lengths Josh had gone to for his husband’s sake.

As Gia watched, awestruck to see the men kiss for the first time in months, she was more astounded to see Luke was kissing Josh back. Actively. He wasn’t passively accepting the tender assault on his mouth. He was there. Right in the middle of the action.

The lengths Josh had gone to in order to save Luke’s reputation shocked her too, but this came as more of a surprise. They bit at each other’s lips, tugging and pulling with their teeth, exploring each other with their tongues. As she watched, she swallowed down her desire, the needs that arose from seeing them like that with each other.

It felt like a lifetime since she’d last seen them touch, and maybe it was. Months had passed since their honeymoon, but the time within had been filled with so much heartache and horror, it felt as though a decade had blown by.

Feeling the low burn in her belly, a sensation she was well acquainted with, she rocked back in her seat and watched the two men she adored as they worshipped each other. Luke knotted his hands in the ungiving fabric of Josh’s BDU jacket, holding him close, so close neither man could move far. They were pressed so tightly together she had a feeling the blurs demarcating two separate entities merged right before her eyes.

Though she was hesitant to disturb them, she knew Luke’s knee was in no way ready for anything overly gymnastic. He needed a mattress. Stat.

She was about to open her mouth, about to interrupt, when Josh pulled away. Luke’s lips worked in a silent complaint, but not for long. Josh sank to his knees and immediately went to work on his lover’s fly. The sound of the zipper was inordinately loud. It seemed to echo around the study, and she pressed her legs together in an attempt to stymie the burn gathering there. One flick of his fingers and the button clasp was loose and out popped Luke’s shaft.

A shudder worked through her at the sight of the ruddy length, and her mouth watered with the need to taste him. Luke speared his hands through Josh’s hair and gently, in spite of there being a determined air to the move, he guided his lover to where he needed him to be.

Josh’s lips popped open to suckle the tip, and he fluttered his tongue over the sensitive glans before heading down, slurping along the throbbing length, moistening it, preparing it. He gripped Luke’s balls, cupped them and massaged them in his fist. Squeezing them together gently, tugging down as his mouth worked its way back up to the tip. Josh opened his mouth wide and swallowed Luke deep. He rocked his jaw back and forth, taking far more of his cock than Gia could, and all the while, as he ministered to him, Luke’s head was tilted back, his eyes tightly clenched as he reveled in the pleasure his lover was gifting him.

She couldn’t help it. Need rode her hard, so hard she slipped a hand down her yoga pants and delved underneath her panties to touch herself. As she watched her personal porn show, she rubbed her clit, then speared two fingers deep into her pussy. A gasp escaped her, a moan that had both guys’ attention jerking her way. The instant they looked at her, she flushed with heat as more arousal weighed her down. Their faces had been hard, intent with their own need but now, an inferno arced between them all, uniting them as one.

Gia continued to fuck herself with her pointer and middle fingers and ground the heel of her wrist against her clit. It wasn’t as good as her lovers’ attention, but it would do. Momentarily.

Luke continued to stare at her, but Josh went back to his work. Whimpers escaped her as she watched him deep throat their wounded warrior and each time, she could see what that sound did to Luke. His throat worked, his lungs seeming to need more air. She saw the tell that he was about to come: the sinews in his throat flashed white as he tensed them, and the lowest, sexiest grunts filled the room as he flooded Josh’s mouth with his seed.

The knowledge spurred her on. Within seconds, she was moaning with her release, but it wasn’t thanks to her touch. It was the knowledge that Luke had come in Josh’s mouth. She felt wobbly, the pleasure she’d experienced making her limbs faintly lax, but she strove on, getting to her feet and rounding the desk. She almost fell as she got to her knees beside Josh, but as he started to pull back from Luke’s dick, Gia grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. The instant he did, she attacked, going for his mouth, loving the taste of both men as she explored his lips. Josh let her eat at him, let her taste all she needed. Luke slipped his fingers through her hair as she reveled in his essence.

By the time she’d finished, her tongue almost aching from fucking Josh’s, she was desperate. It was almost like she hadn’t come at all. “Oh God, oh God,” she muttered frantically against his mouth. “Fuck me, fuck me. Please. I need you. Both of you.”

Her garbled words had low sounds escaping both of their throats. Josh’s eyes flashed with heat, his skin flushed with arousal as he leaped to his feet and helped her up. “Bedroom,
now
,” he commanded and practically frog-marched her to their quarters.

Luke was at their back, managing to keep up with Josh’s admittedly quick tempo. The instant they were inside their room, Josh ordered, “Strip off. Both of you.”

Well accustomed to his dictates, neither stirred, save from doing as bid. Gia’s yoga pants and sweatshirt, panties and bra were on the floor within the minute, and she slipped her fingers down to her cunt once more, needing to touch herself, to maintain the slow but fiery burn of need. A lust only these two could inspire.

Josh growled at the sight. He snapped his hand out to grab hold of her wrist and brought her fingers to his lips. Slipping each digit into his mouth, he sucked them clean, then hoarsely commanded, “Get on the bed, Gia.”

She nodded, eagerly obeying. Knowing what he was about to do, she sat on the edge before lying back and resting her heels on the edge of the mattress. She spread them wide, waiting for him to come to her. It took less than two seconds for him to be there, his attention glued to her cunt. She shuddered at his enraptured gaze and felt herself grow wetter, her body responding to his presence, to his attention. He’d stripped off as well, and seeing his long cock, pearling with precum, she had to lick her lips. He fisted it for a minute, slowly jerking himself off before whispering, “You want this, babe?”