Trifecta (6 page)

"Lauren."  Russell turned her toward him.

She opened her eyes but kept her gaze down.  "At first I went out with Anne."

Jason couldn't help but groan.  He never understood what Laurie saw in that woman.  It had to be a case of opposites attract. 

Russell wrinkled his nose at the mention of the woman who wanted him.  "After Anne what happened?  You were gone for eleven hours."

She paused and inhaled, exhaling her words as if she needed to get them out as fast as possible. "I drove around and I looked at some apartments."

Russell pressed his lips together until the color disappeared, while the cords down his neck did an appearing act.

             
"You're staying here."  At the mention of her apartment hunting, he threw the washcloth aside making a splash. 

"I was really confused all day."  She shook her head.  "What are we doing?"

Earlier when she asked the question, she looked to Russell for the answers, but Russell never answered.  Hell, Russell even asked the question himself.  Though this time she didn't single either one of them out as the man who had the solution, Jason knew Russell needed to speak.  His answer didn't have the clout his friend's did.  He poked his fingers into the bubbles watching them dissolve.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched Russell hook his fingers under her chin and lift her face up.  "Lauren, look at me."

She complied, glancing up at him through her lashes.

"I think Jason was wrong." 

Jason raised his head.  He fought the need to pound his fist into the side of the tub.  Of course he was wrong.  Russell took every opportunity to tell him today, but they were all here now.  Yes, this could implode on them, but they had to do this.  They were stagnant like his art. 

"I'm glad we waited until now.  I don't think we could have handled this in college."  He smiled.  "I think he was right that we needed to give this a try."

"Do you mean it?"  She put her hand on Russell's arm.

He nodded and turned.  "Jason?"

With the spotlight on him, he needed to say something as amazing as his best friend. "I’ve wanted you since college."  He took a breath.  His words didn't come out exactly how he wanted, but she still reached for him.  Without a second thought he moved up.

She held her hand out to him.  "I think you're both right." 

Lauren understood.  Russell may be the man with the answers, but Lauren was the woman with the intuition.  He got up on his knees and took his opportunity to kiss her. 

This kiss was different than the night before.  Less than twenty-four hours earlier he and Russell burst in on Lauren and moved forward on a quest to join them together.  It was his plan, they didn't have time for extended foreplay, they needed to act and sort it out later.  While last night was hot, it was also laser focused.  Pinpointing on one spot until everything combusted.

Tonight, they could start slow fire.  Let things happen in the perfect ebb and flow. 

Tonight he finally got the chance to truly kiss her, and exactly like when he started any other art project, he made sure to block everything else out and concentrate. 

Her mouth melded to his, but even though they knew each other forever, and they slept together, still her lips trembled.  She was unsure, but willing, and he needed to make her secure and comfortable.  He started slow, took his time to open his mouth.  Taste the peppermint toothpaste lingering on her tongue, and smile at the way she gasped when he deepened the kiss.

She kept up with him, matching his movements as if they had spent years kissing.  Maybe in some way they did.  However, the reality was much more vibrant, full of depth and color and that extra spark that let him know he had much more than dime store art, but a masterpiece. 

His body heated, the burn taking residence right in his jeans.  It took every bit of his strength to keep his promise and take his time. He pulled back, and she paused before opening her eyes. 

He never broke eye contact with her.  Once again their history worked in his favor, and he knew Russell stared at them.  His job was not only to make sure they savored this but to keep things moving.  "I'm not sure Russell has properly kissed you this evening."  He moved aside.

In the moment where Russell leaned over the edge of the tub and took Lauren into his arms Jason knew exactly how deep his best friend's feelings ran for the woman in the water.  For that matter Jason also knew how deep Russell felt for him.  His traditional buddy would never opt to share the woman he wanted unless this meant everything to him.  However, in this case it wasn't sharing.  They had synergy.  The three of them were definitely better together.

Russell kissed her, and Lauren wrapped her arm around his neck.  She arched her back causing her breasts to emerge from the water.  A perfect picture.

Before he could send Russell the message to touch her, his best friend's hand cupped her breast, his fingertips brushing the already hard nipple.

She moaned and snaked her hand up to grab the hair at the nape of Russell's neck.

They became lost in each other.  Taking full advantage of what had been denied them for nearly a decade. Jason took his opportunity to move back down to his original spot, and let his hands continue where his washcloth left off. With her wet skin he had no trouble sliding his hand up and down her leg, taking the time to admire each curve.  He made sure he explored every inch, working up to her inner thigh where he stopped just short of his goal.

"Oh." With her eyes shut, she moved her hips toward him.

His erection swelled as his fingertips came closer.

Russell moved down to her neck, her chest and then encompassed her nipple with his mouth, and she bit her lip.

She spread her legs, giving Jason his invitation.  He swiped the bubbles away spying her well-groomed racing stripe, and his mouth began to water.  At last his hand delved for the treasure he really wanted to find, but allowed only one finger to travel down her folds.

While Russell took care of her mouth and breasts, he concentrated on what the two of them could do to bring her pleasure.

He grazed the one spot he searched for. 

She gasped and arched her back.  "Jason." 

"Something wrong?" He focused on her face and repeated his action.  A feather light touch made even softer by the water.  He rubbed her in a slow circle causing her to writhe beneath him.  "Aren't we doing a good job?"

"Yes."  She grasped the edge of the tub. 

Russell switched breasts, taking the other in his mouth. 

"Russ, please."  This time she called out to him.

Russell tossed his glasses onto the counter.  "Please what?"  He found her lips once more.

"Jason."  She breathed into his mouth.

At the way she tattled on him, Jason's cock strained in his jeans.  He teased her a little more, giving her a bit more pressure and then retracting.

She braced her leg on the wall.

Russell turned down to him, then back to her.  "What's wrong with Jason?"  He took one of her nipples between two fingers.

She moved her other leg up, her knee peeking out of the water.

Yes.  This was precisely what he wanted.  Russell involved, not relying totally on his prodding.  He ignored his own needs. Now was time for his build up and her release.  He leaned over and kissed her knee, opening his mouth and sucking the soapy water off her.

She glared at him almost as a dare, then turned to Russell and pulled him down in another kiss.

"There we go."  This whole thing was too hot, and he gave in, pressing his hand to himself as he indulged her with only one finger. 

"Ahh."  She attempted to grind into him. 

Her body was slick, ready and needing release.

"Better?"  Russell let out a low laugh.

She shook her head.

"Jason."  This time Russell said his name, but more than his name, it was a demand.  A command to satisfy their girl, and now he would act.

He added a second finger. 

She opened right up for him. "That's better."

He started slow but steady his two fingers thrusting in and out of her, making sure his thumb did his job of giving her plenty of sensation. 

Though he may have lived with Lauren, seen her in almost every situation, knew she preferred butter pecan ice cream slightly melted over any other flavor, and knew she would secretly watch musicals and sing along, he didn't know exactly every move to make her come. 

Now he learned she liked him to alternate between hard, fast strokes and slow deep ones.  She wanted Russell to use a bit more force when toying with her nipples, and as she neared her end she panted.

He wanted to tear off his jeans and tear into her, and his best friend felt the same way.  Though this morning Russell wouldn't give into his teasing about jacking off, now his free hand rubbed his groin as he continued to kiss and fondle their girl.

"Oh," Lauren cried out. "Oh now."  She held onto Russell's shoulders. 

"Let go."  Russell stopped pleasuring himself to wrap both arms around her. 

She moaned and moved against him.

"Come, Lauren."  He thrust his fingers faster.

"There!"  She sucked in her breath.

"Now!"  The water splashed with his sharp movements.  "Come on, baby."

Her body tensed and she cried out as her orgasm hit, her muscles contracting on his fingers as if she wanted to draw him even deeper.

She gasped as the waves of pleasure died down, her body relaxing.

"Feel good?"  He left his fingers in place, ensuring she rode out every last bit of bliss.

She nodded and hid her face in Russell's shirt.  "I can't believe this."

He removed his fingers, separating himself from her and watching her breasts bob up and down as she caught her breath.  "We love making you come.  This is what we were meant to do." With the years of need and trust, there was no room for embarrassment between the three of them. "Tell her, Russ."

Russell brushed her hair back.  "This is what we need to do." 

She peered at him over Russell's shoulder.  The smile permeating her face full of satisfaction and desire, but once he caught her gaze she shifted her eyes again.

"This is what we need to do."  Russell blinked several times.

"You have two men who waited a long time for you."  Jason stood and got a towel.  While he knew his buddy wanted this, those were the blinks of doubts.  Laurie was also unsure or she wouldn't have left today. He had to keep them moving.  Inspiration finally found him, and he wasn't wrong about this.

No he wasn't.

Chapter Six

"What are you reading?"  Russell leaned over and ran his lips across her shoulder. 

Lauren inhaled at the shivers Russell created and held up her magazine.  Thank God the magazine consisted mostly of advertisements and pictures.  She had no energy for reading.  Again, the three of them rushed home from work and made love.  In the last four days days she’d more orgasms than the last year.  She had no time for anything but her job and her men.  Her life was like swimming in a bowl of hot fudge.  Dripping with decadence and deliciousness.  If she wanted to live the fantasy, she was doing it in big, gluttonous gulps.  She only prayed she didn’t end up in the hospital with food poisoning, no doctor would ever compare to her pair of paradise makers. 

However, with every bit of paradise reality snuck in.  Around this time every night she began wondering about the sleeping arrangements.  Since their first night, they slept together in the same room.  Still, with her history of men gone wrong she took nothing for granted.  In her case she had two men, only doubling her chances of failure.

"Fashion."  He nodded and leaned over to look at the page with her.  "What's new in the world of fashion?" 

"Matte nail polish and a smoky eye." She tilted the page toward him and glanced at the screen of his laptop.  "What's new in the world of vintage toys?"

He paused, actually taking the time to look at what she read.  Russell always paid attention, even if he had no idea what he was paying attention to, such as matte nail polish.  "Nothing, they're vintage."  He turned his laptop to show her an Internet auction for a 1960's racetrack.

She laughed and leaned over to see the details.  The holidays were on the way, and these two men were radically different. Russell was the easiest person on the planet to buy for.  All she had to do is peek at what vintage plaything interested him at the moment.  Last year it was robots, and she went down to the antique district and bought him a dusty, partially working robot with a remote.  The thing didn't work, which made it even better because Russell spent two months fixing it, cleaning it and fabricating parts for it. 

Now Mr. Robot, as she called it, lived in the corner of his room on a little pedestal.  He moved, he spoke, and he did his tricks.  As a bonus Mr. Robot had the box.  She learned five years ago never throw the box away.  Never.  She frowned trying not to remember the box she tossed.  She may as well have told Russell the robot ran away from home.  Boxes and toys were not kept together, that may ruin the box.  Boxes were stored in bins with special things to keep moisture out and put in the garage.

The racetrack that caught his eye had the box, and she did a quick scan.  "All four original cars and controllers and extra pieces of track.  You will probably have to replace the brushes at the bottom of the cars so they make contact with the track."

"Oh my God."  Russell let his head fall back on the pillows.

"What's wrong?"  She turned to him.

"The way you're talking is turning me on."  Russell flung his hand over his eyes.

"What did she say?"  Jason returned to the bedroom carrying three bowls of ice cream. 

"Nothing.  You wouldn't get it."  Russell lowered his arm and held his hand out for his treat.

"Nothing for you if you don't tell me."  Jason backed up.  "It's the rule, you have to tell me."

Lauren pursed her lips at the comment about the rules.  Were there any for what they were doing?  She would never admit it, but she even tried looking their situation up on the Internet.  All she got were links to porn sites.  Fine, she peeked at the porn.  It gave her some ideas.  After all, she was sleeping with two men.

"She acknowledged that the racetrack I'm trying to bid on has all the cars, extra tracks and needs brushes."  Russell wiggled his fingers.

"Yeah, that gives me a woody."  With a shrug Jason gave him the bowl.  "Chocolate with chocolate chips."

"Thanks."  Russell dug in.

"Butter pecan."  Jason handed her the next bowl.

"Yay!"  She cupped her hands around her dish.  Carbs were not her concern.  She figured she was getting such a great workout every night she could indulge a little.

"And a scoop of each for me."  Jason bounced on the bed with his.  "Don't get me a racetrack for Christmas." 

"Of course not."  She stirred her ice cream.  No, where Russell was easy, Jason was not.  He didn't have a hobby like Russell.  His career was his hobby, and he was particular about his art supplies.  She couldn't buy him clothing because she could never quite figure out the mystery of how Jason chose his apparel.  He was the only man who could walk into a seemingly normal store with normal items and come out extraordinary.  In fact, she loved it when he bought her clothes.  His talent in selecting just the right item didn't only pertain to himself.  She agonized over his presents.

"Just you and Russell in bed and some bows in convenient spots is all I need."  Jason took a huge bite of his ice cream and turned on the television.

"You never use anything I buy you."  She continued making her ice cream into a whip.

"I love Lauren's gifts."   Russell's voice came out muffled by the ice cream in his mouth. 

"That is absolutely, one hundred percent not true."  Jason flipped through the channels.  "I love your gifts, too."

She ran down a mental list of years of unused or forgotten presents.  "What about the designer shirt I got you last year?"  In her last attempt to get Jason clothes she went for a label instead of style. 

"I don't want to wreck it.  It's hanging in my closet."

"What about the shaving kit?" She never knew a man who liked to be as hairless as Jason.  Now she knew to what extent.  He shaved everything.

"I didn't want to destroy it.  It's in the bathroom."  He threw the remote to Russell.

"What about the pencils I got you that had something like five hundred colors?"  She stirred her ice cream one more time and deeming it the correct consistency, spooned some in her mouth.   Her special mixture dripped off onto her chest.  "Do you have a napkin?"  She went to wipe up the mess with her fingers.

"Hold up."  Jason put his bowl on the nightstand and caught her hand.  He looked into her eyes and curled his body around her, taking his time to lick the ice cream off her.  "There, all clean."

Russell yawned, put his bowl down and began playing with her hair.

She didn't think she would ever get used to the three of them in bed talking about nothing, eating ice cream and fooling around.  Rather than letting the moment take her, she tensed.  What if she never got enough time to get used to it?  Everyday she tried to wipe these thoughts out of her head, just like she tried not to worry about where they would sleep.  "What happened to the pencils?"

Jason rested his chin on her shoulder.  "I have them.  They're on the third shelf of my bookcase in my studio."

She narrowed her eyes.  For a man who hated her gifts he sure knew where all of them were.

"You gave them to me on our third Christmas, and I never opened them."

Russell closed his laptop.  "That was the Christmas you got me the futuristic train set."

She turned to him.  Did these men really remember every gift? 

"I think I'll set it up this weekend."  He kissed her nose.  "I love that train set."

"You got me my bracelet and Jason got me my earrings."  Though she tried not to read too much into those gifts, she did anyway, toggling between which one of them she wanted to end up with.  She still wore those gifts at least a few times every week.

Jason moved her hair away from her ear.  "I never used the pencils because I didn't want to take the chance of using them up.  I didn't know what was going to happen and I had a horrible crush on you."

Her heart raced making it hard for her to breathe. "Way back then?"

"I had a crush on her first."  Russell took her chin.

Now, she couldn't breathe.  She knew she loved them, wanted them, but couldn't fall in love.  They were only acting out what they needed to for years, getting it out of their systems.  Hell, she didn't even know where they were going to sleep tonight.

"You only voiced it first."  Jason put his hand on her bowl.  "Are you done?"

She glanced down at the melted mess.  The ice cream, the caramel, the pecans.  Three ingredients that when swirled together made an amazing combination, a taste sensation.  Her mind wandered.  Back in college if either of them voiced their crush would they have ended up together?  Which couple would they have been?  Would they be together now?  Would the third person still be in their life?  There were no answers.  She nodded.

"Great."  He gave the ice cream a final stir, and held the spoon up above her chest. 

"What are you doing?" The frigid liquid hit her chest, and she arched her back. 

"Since I've known you you've made your ice cream into a soup, and it always bothered me."  He bent down and licked one dripping trail off her chest.  "Now I see this is the way to eat it."

His tongue made her hot, his words before warmed her.  "Jason!"

"You are going to make everything all sticky."  Russell yanked the sheet down, revealing her breasts.

"Russell, if you don't like Lauren being sticky, I suggest you clean it up." He looked right in her eyes, raised the spoon again and allowed the creamy liquid to fall in a ribbon across her nipples. 

Russell glanced down at her and swallowed.  The airport may be his nemesis when in the car, but a sticky food mess in bed was an enemy, one where he may lose.

"It's the rule that we have to share."  He moved back to give Russell access.

This was the second time Jason mentioned rules.  Since they began he seemed to have the answers where Russell didn't.

"You know you want to.  Trust me, she's delicious."  Jason raised his eyebrows.

Jason pushed them all to their limits and she knew Russell was actually shoved. She wanted to tell him not to go further, she only wanted to know where they were spending the night.

"What are the rules?"  Russell put one finger up and with an exaggerated movement dipped it into the ice cream.

She gasped, not only at the question, but the action.  He was learning to break the rules all himself.  One small finger in the ice cream for most men, one giant leap into the land of the sticky for Russell Sinclair.

"What do you mean?"  Jason wiped up one errant dribble and put his finger in his mouth.

"Rules.  What are they?"  Russell scooped some up as well.  "You seem to know everything.  What do we do next?"

Lauren pressed her lips together.  She couldn't have voiced it better herself.

Jason clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.  "I say the rules are we make them up as we go along."

"I don't understand."  The cords on Russell's neck stood out.

She didn't understand either, yet here they were.

"Well, right now the rules are we clean up Laurie, and then we go to bed.  Tomorrow's rules will find us soon enough." Jason put out his hand as if inviting Russell to take part.  "We both crushed on her bad, and here she is with ice cream dripping down her boobs.  Tell me you never pictured that."

Russell turned to her.  "I can say in all honesty I never pictured this." He put his finger to her lips.

She fought a smile, and allowed Russell to place his fingertip in her mouth, pursing her lips around him and giving him a light suck.

Russell stared at her.

"I pictured that."  Jason lowered his voice.

"Me too."  Russell lowered his head to her chest. 

She shut her eyes.  Russell cleaned her up, licking, kissing, and sucking.  She never wanted anyone more, unless that included the other man next to her.

Jason took her hand and worked her neck.  "We're just going to make the rules for ourselves." 

"Let's stay in here tonight."  Russell mumbled as he gave her another series of kisses across her breast.

They both rid her of the butter pecan ice cream, replacing the silken, sweet treat with a heated core that made her try to forget all the questions, all the rules.  

Her body relaxed, relishing in the attention, the comfort, the closeness with the only men she ever wanted.  She could only pray she didn't replace butter pecan for rocky road.