The Power of Love (2 page)

His laughter tickled her ear, but she ignored it, preferring to arch in his hold, feel the tightening of his grip as he kept a firm clasp on her neck. The finger in her butt slipped free and was replaced with two more. They scissored apart as Luke’s digit slid deep. Her hips rocked forward in delight at the gush of water against those parts, and it came as no surprise when moments later, she felt the tip of Josh’s shaft against the pucker of her butt. He always was impatient at times like these, and a moan escaped her as he worked his way inside because she wouldn’t change that impatience for all the world. Gia rocked a little, making his clasp on her throat tighten once more. The chain reaction it caused had her pushing her hips down and back, forcing him home, and filling her to bursting in less than a handful of seconds.

“Naughty girl,” he grunted, panting against her ear.

“Don’t complain,” Luke retorted. “I’m still out in the cold.”

“You don’t have to be, sweetheart,” she crooned, her voice hoarse from the strength of Josh’s grip around her neck. She held out her arms, beckoning him near, and was rewarded by his chest coming to rest against hers as his shaft settled against her pussy. Her hips were tilted forward, providing him with the perfect angle for him to enter her, and he took no time in sliding his dick against her clit, rubbing it a little, only to slip down and penetrate her.

The fullness, God, there was nothing like it. She loved it, reveled in it. Adored how they claimed her. And at that moment, with the rings on her finger, she truly was theirs. No one else’s. Theirs.

The thought made need flush through her, a sensation exacerbated by the time it took for Luke to work his way in deep. Each thrust took him home, but he fought for space as Josh’s dick took up most of it in her ass. Behind her, Josh’s breathing had grown thready, and the pulse, deep inside her, told its own tale. He was hot and hard and ready to come. Already. That told her how horny he was, how much he’d been holding back, and how ready he was to make her his.

The notion thrilled her, and she tightened her grip on Luke’s shoulders, sliding her arms around to hold him close to her. His lips sought hers immediately, and as he kissed her, robbing her of even more of her breath, he began to move his hips. Slowly, at first, then at a medium pace. Each thrust dragged his glans against Josh’s, each wriggle sliding against the thick shaft in her butt. She realized he was teasing their lover more than he was teasing her, and she clenched down both to aid him and to punish him.

The ensuing groan was more than she could have asked for, and behind her, Josh, who had been still, suddenly started to jerk his hips, moving his cock deep and nudging it against Luke’s. It took mere moments for his control to break. An act so extraordinary that when he cried out, his cum suddenly filling her ass to overfull, both she and Luke paused in astonishment.

“Someone was trigger-happy,” Luke teased as Josh’s heavy breaths were overloud in the stillness of the night air. They were audible over the jets in the tub.

“I needed that,” he gritted out, his voice weak as his desire faded out.

“Raise your hips,” Luke commanded, “perch on the side so Gia’s above the waterline.” Josh must have stared at him dopily, because he repeated the order again. With Josh’s strength, albeit diminished by his release, it took less than a few seconds for him to obey. The bubbling water was suddenly rushing against her clit rather than against her belly, and the need that had been on a low simmer became urgent.

She cried out as the tiny nub was assaulted on all sides, but she couldn’t close her legs because Josh’s maintained the wide spread of her thighs. Luke’s chuckle was evil, and she glowered at him, but he’d moved with her, coming to a standing position, and he began to fuck her. He pistoned his hips, screwing her hard, knocking her back into Josh, who buffered the force. Whimpers escaped her as with every thrust, more water splashed against her and his pelvis rocked into her clit, giving her the touch she needed, one the ethereal tickle of the liquid didn’t give her. His chest began to heave, sweat beaded on his brow, and the telltale flicker of the nerve on his forehead began its ticking as his own climax approached.

For herself, she was close, but not that close, and the dichotomy made her want to scream. But then, when his head flung back in preparation, when she really did feel like screaming, he stopped and pulled out. The gaping emptiness felt like a yawning chasm, and she moaned in disappointment. But then, he pushed her butt higher with one hand, and with the other, jerked off. Cum splashed down over the curves of her sex, dotting the bright pink lips, red from his attentions and flushed with blood. The contrasting colors filled her with heat as she stared at his seed before she looked up at the ferocious glare on his face as he worked through his pleasure. It came to her that was how he looked in battle, and God, the notion fired her excitement all the more.

When he bit out a curse as he worked the final drops of his cum from his shaft, he pressed his still-hard cock against the mess he made and began to work it into her pussy. The idea that he was marking her turned her on something fierce, but it was the slick and slippery rub of the glans against her clit that sent her to heaven.

His seed acted like a lube, and his dick was the rough touch she needed to come. She stared at him, her eyes wide as he worked on her, dragging her high but not taking her over. And almost like the two worked in tandem to take her to the top, Josh tightened his grip down on her throat.

That was it.

She was a goner. Ecstasy slalomed through her, sending her to the brink of insanity and driving her around a bend so filled with pleasure, she never wanted to go back to Earth. She didn’t feel them gather her lax limbs as they carried her out of the tub, nor did she feel them dry her off. She floated in a cloudy daze of wonder, her orgasm taking her to a peace that had been far away ever since news of Luke’s deployment had reached her awareness.

As she lay there, panting heavily, ecstasy still slaloming around her body, the craziness of their situation gradually, minutes or hours later, began to hit home. Here she was, on honeymoon with two married guys, her little girl in another part of the suite, and in two days’ time, one of her husbands would be flying off to war.

The power of love meant she would keep it together, for his sake, and she would be strong enough to be at Lexi and Josh’s backs to prop them up when they were down about Luke’s absence. But what about her? Who’d prop her up when Luke was in the sandbox? Her support, at times, her lifeline, was going into enemy territory, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

The odd thing about having two partners was that each one fit a particular need. Josh was her strength and her protector. He’d go on the rampage if it meant saving her from harm. He was the one who could fix anything around the house, and who she called on to save her from spiders in the bath. She loved him, needed him as she did Luke, but Luke was there, constantly at her side. He was her helpmate, sustaining her emotionally and mentally. He was her guide, her adviser. If she needed to talk something out, he was the one she went to, and if she needed to know what she ought to wear to one of the fancy and boring-as-hell shindigs they sometimes had to attend in honor of either man’s job, then he was her go-to guy.

It was why these last months had been so hard. He’d been despondent, reticent even. She’d lost him to the deployment long before the plane took off to parts unknown.

Gia moved her hand and reached for his. He’d curled it around her belly, and she clutched at his fingers, knowing if she was to get through the time without him she’d have to embrace these moments. Revel in the memories of being tucked alongside Luke’s slightly damp body as she was now. Luxuriate in being his as much as he was hers.

She had to take comfort from the fact no benevolent God or deity or whatever, fate or serendipity—call it what you will—could give her this wonderful man only to take him away now.

At least, that was what Gia prayed. She only hoped someone somewhere was listening.

Chapter One

Six months later

“This is bullshit.” Josh stared down at the file in his hand. “Do you hear me?”

Covering her mouth with her fingers, Gia watched as Josh released his grip and, in a flurry of papers, smashed his fist against the desk. She’d been watching him berate the poor bastard on the other end of the line for the last half hour, but as angry as he became, the more strings he tried to pull, the more infuriated he was when news about their partner, Luke Gray, wasn’t forthcoming.

“You’re not listening to me. This is Lieutenant Colonel Gray we’re talking about. This is not some green, pimple-pocked private. I need information and I need it now, goddammit. You know Luke, Jeremy. You know
him
. Does this sound like something he’d do?”

“Is he okay?” she whispered, her quiet words jerking him from his fury. He turned to face her, catching her attention. The rage she saw buried within the depths scorched her, but she could handle that; it was the fear that lay beneath that rocked her world. Josh was scared of nothing. At least, he never let on that he was.

Seeing his trepidation concerned her all the more—it made her lungs burn with panic. He must have noticed, because he unclenched a fist and slowly patted the air, attempting to temper her concern before he returned his attention to the call. It didn’t stop her from worrying, but she appreciated the effort.

Those three words, that simple question, they were all she was capable of saying though she wanted to say more. She wanted to pester him for information, blast him with queries, but Gia had been virtually silent ever since Josh’s personal cell had beeped when they’d all been eating breakfast. One of his friends within the service had given him a heads-up on the situation and had singlehandedly turned their world upside down.

Josh’s current tone of voice was one she’d termed “B-G badass” a long time ago. It wasn’t often used under their roof, especially not in front of Lexi, so the instant she’d heard it at the breakfast table, terror had filled her.

“I want him back on US soil within the next seventy-two hours.” She wasn’t sure why he glowered down at the desk, but she was relieved to hear his dictate. It meant Luke was whole enough to travel. That made the burn in her lungs settle down into a low simmer. “You fucking hear me now, Staff Sergeant Evans, you will put the orders through. Any investigations can take place once he’s back home. I don’t care what protocol states, you heed my fucking words.“

When he slammed the receiver down, Gia watched on as he rested his palms on the desk, head bowed, tension rippling along his spine. The sounds of his heavy breathing were a testament to his anger, but his face was a tense mask. It showed her relatively little in the scheme of things.

“What’s going on?” she questioned, taking a hesitant step closer to his desk. It was like approaching a wounded tiger in his den. Except she wasn’t afraid
of
him, simply afraid of
why
he was wounded. “I can take it. Don’t hold back, because I need to know. Is he okay?”

“He’s been injured.” Josh sucked in a sharp breath, then a smoother one. That alone told her he was trying to remain calm. “He’ll heal. He’s fucked-up, but he’s alive.”

He looked at her, and the somberness she saw made her frown. “What is it?”

“He’s been discharged, Gia. OTH.”

“What does that mean?”

“Other Than Honorable.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s been released for misconduct.”

She blinked, astounded at the prospect. “Luke?
Our
Luke? He’s been discharged for misconduct?” she squeaked, then before he could reply, blurted out, “What did he do? I thought he’d been injured. What the fuck’s going on?”

“That prick wouldn’t say, but I’ll put in a request to see his file.”

“You don’t work in the same department. Why should they let you see it?”

“I have a lot of friends. Luke does too. They’ll help out. Why do you think Charles called this morning? He wanted me to get a handle on this FUBAR situation.”

Gia disregarded that. To be honest, she didn’t care if Luke never worked as a soldier again. What mattered was his health. What mattered was that he could come home. She tried to focus on that and not the crazy matter of the discharge.

“When is he coming back?”

“I don’t know. You heard what I said on the phone, but it depends if Evans does as I commanded or questions my authority. Which he will.” He rubbed his temple, then after sighing, caught her gaze and speared her with his earnestness as he murmured, “I’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

She nodded and settled a hand on his back. His tension transmitted to her, and Gia clenched her eyes at its presence. It was worse than he was telling her; he was holding something back, and where Josh was concerned, that was never a good thing.

“As long as he’s okay, we can cope with the rest.”

Josh shook his head. “I don’t know, Gia. We’ll see. For a lieutenant colonel to be discharged OTH, there’s already been a hearing. He’s lucky he hasn’t been court-martialed. Or maybe that’s in the cards. I’m not sure.”

She gawked at him. “You can’t be serious.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about this fucking situation.” He roared out his fury, swiping his hand over the surface, shoving papers, his laptop, and God knew what else over the side.

He didn’t stop until the room vibrated with his anger and his fear and the floor was littered with shards of expensive equipment.

At heart, Josh was a control freak. Anything he couldn’t control, he detested and actively avoided. In this, he was at a loss, and though she felt half mad at the notion Luke was injured, lying in a hospital bed half the world away, that Josh couldn’t control this scenario frightened her.

She looked at the mess he’d made, swallowed down her panic, and retreated from the office. If he needed her, it would be later when he’d calmed down some. As it was, she’d only hinder him, stop him from expressing his rage, and he needed to let it out. He needed to get back in control because if anyone could sort this mess out, it was Josh.