By the next day the Celtics plan had developed, and Matt was so enthused about that she didn’t have the heart to decline. Dan had already gotten the tickets, he said, four of them.
It was Jack who told her about the Vermont trip and the plan because of it to stay to Sunday. All through Sunday, in fact, since, by that time, it would only make sense to stay and watch the Pats game.
She was feeling crowded by then, dancing to the devious tune of a master manipulator. Daniel was getting what he wanted without ever having to face her about it.
She swallowed her objection to it when Jack presented the final itinerary. Those first proposals, relayed by Matt, had seemed potentially innocent. Matt, at least, would see no ulterior motive to the extended invitation.
It wasn’t so simple when she faced Jack. She was back to that nervous suspicion, that little anxious speculation about what she saw in his eyes. Was Jack challenging her, testing her? Did he wonder if she leapt too easily at the chance to be with Daniel? Or if any hesitation was false, a too obvious reluctance?
It drove her crazy, this loss of trust she had with Jack.
She was at fault, and she knew it. She wouldn’t have to worry whether Jack doubted her now if she hadn’t succumbed to Daniel’s touch.
Shamefully, she was relieved that she had extra shifts at work and that Jack was spending long hours in the lab. It was simpler to not see him than to be with him, always uneasy.
She looked forward to the holiday with mounting dread.
* * * *
In the end, Caroline baked pies. Through Matt and Jack, she’d been reassured that their Thanksgiving meal would be complete, prepared and served by a catering staff.
But she’d come to Wednesday with her last shift done, her academic work caught up, and a nervous energy that barred her from just taking advantage of a quiet, relaxing day with nothing to do.
It was one more thing to hold against Daniel Ryan.
So she baked. Pumpkin because it was Thanksgiving, berry because that was Matt’s favorite, and apple because to Jack, well, what other kind of pie was there? She made extra to send with her brother, who was spending the day with Carlie’s family.
An unexpected benefit of baking pies revealed itself on Thursday, when Daniel himself welcomed Matt and Jack and her into the Ryan mansion. Pie served as good armor. Hands full, she dodged any physical greeting from Daniel other than a quick peck on the cheek.
Perhaps she’d worried for no reason. Much to Caroline’s surprise, she spent a lovely afternoon and evening with the three men. They sampled wine and hors d’oeuvres while touring the mansion, settling eventually in the game room for pool and foosball.
They had an early evening dinner that was leisurely and delicious, served by a very discreet staff. Daniel made a point of dismissing the caterers after dinner, saying they could manage Caroline’s pies by themselves. Then he bundled the small group up for a walk outside—first through the mansion grounds, lovely with fall shrubs and bare trees lit with white lights. They strolled through the neighborhood after that, reportedly another Ryan tradition.
Remarkably, after the first anxious moments, Caroline was relaxed and comfortable. Daniel was entirely appropriate. There was none of that intent watchfulness she expected, no furtive touches or glances.
Over time, she became a bit sympathetic to him, even. It was clear that he loved his home. He’d lived there from birth, had even been born in the ridiculously huge bed in the master suite. He showed them the nursery and his boyhood bedroom, his under-stair nook that had been his favorite hiding spot when he was small, and the tree outside his room he’d used for clandestine escapes from the mansion during his teen years.
His hand stroked over old wood as he walked them through his home and he spoke of other traditions—his sister and he, and now his nephews, bumping down the polished back stairs on their bottoms, hanging stockings over the huge fireplace in the formal living room.
He was lonely, she realized, living in this huge house that really was a home to him, but now so empty. It called for family.
Jack and Matt noticed it, too, she saw. Caroline exchanged glances with each of them as Daniel shared his home with them, and they squeezed her hand in silent communication. This was a side of Dan they hadn’t seen before, either.
He was almost shy about it. She was certain he watched them for their responses. It mattered to him that they recognize and appreciate his feelings. He loved his home, he loved his family, and he wanted the three of them to know it, to see it.
Daniel’s touch as he directed Caroline’s attention was sweet, entirely without that aggressive sexual overtone that she feared. She knew without a doubt that he had never so intimately shared his home, his feelings, with the high-profile women he’d dated.
Daniel clearly missed the family he had. His mother, he said, spent much of the winter on the French Riviera. His sister lived with her husband and their rowdy and obviously much-loved boys in Houston.
They’d all be home for Christmas.
Daniel told them this with a fond longing that tore at Caroline’s heart.
She didn’t want to actually like the man. And she remembered it wasn’t the first time she’d had that thought. He’d praised Caroline’s mother when they’d spoken of her life choices and her death. He’d chipped his way into her heart a little on that day.
He was showing them an unguarded, very appealing side of himself, and chipping his way in a little further.
So her defenses were down when they sat again at the dining table. Food and dishes had been cleared and pie set out, all ready to serve. Jack made a point of sticking to apple only, but Matt and Daniel insisted they’d have to try all three.
Caroline savored the pumpkin, drenched in fresh whipped cream, her favorite of the holiday treats. She was enjoying the pleasure of the men, indulging themselves on her pies, and licking a bit of cream off her fork, when Daniel spoke.
“So, Jackson and Matthew. I’m curious to know. When you’re fucking Caroline, when you have her filled, ass and pussy, with your cocks—what is she doing with her mouth?”
Caroline blanched and stood so quickly she was almost dizzy with it. She backed away from the table blindly, bumping into Jack.
He steadied her, wrapping her in one arm and using a hand to bring her face, her attention, to his. Matt was behind her, a hand on her back, murmuring to her.
Jack held her, keeping her gaze with his, while she struggled to calm her breathing. After a long moment, he touched his lips to hers.
“We’re not ashamed of what we have.”
He looked at her, then over her shoulder to Matthew.
“Are we?” he asked, or commanded, really. “We’re not ashamed.” He looked at her again, demanding she answer.
“No,” she said, but it was a whisper, and she lowered her eyes, her head, until Jack stopped her with his lips on her forehead. Then he turned them, her temple resting against his jaw, until they both could see Daniel.
He sat there, watching, as though he’d just asked if anyone wanted more pie.
“She’s beautiful,” Daniel said, lifting a shoulder. “She’s bright. She’s sweet.”
“And bakes pies,” Matthew said quietly, unhelpfully, from behind her. Caroline barely held herself back from elbowing him.
“Just so,” Daniel said with a quirk of his lips. “And it’s clear she knows how to please men with her body. Two men. So I was wondering, how about a third?”
“You’d like to join us?” Matt asked. “You want us to share Caro with you?”
“She didn’t seem averse,” Daniel said, his gaze on her, “when I had my fingers up her cunt.”
Caroline whimpered out a chagrined moan and tried to turn away, but Jack held her.
“My little submissive,” he drawled, holding her head up to face him. His eyes lit in a knowing, interested way. “Did you let Professor Ryan finger-fuck you? Is that what had you so agitated in the lab the other night?”
Caroline wanted to cry. “I didn’t mean to, I—”
“Caro.” Matt pressed close up behind her, circling one arm around her waist. “Do you want Dan, too?”
She shook her head, too humiliated to speak.
“What do you think, Jack?”
Jack looked from Matt to her. He shrugged. “I’m not opposed. You?”
Matt threaded his fingers through her hair, stroking along her neck. “I’m okay with it.”
He whispered his breath over her neck. Caroline was caught between the two of them, their hard bodies containing her.
Jack looked at Daniel. “She’s not just a fuck-toy. She’s our woman. We’re not with anyone else. It would have to be the same for you. And she’d have to agree.”
Daniel looked back, meeting Jack’s gaze and speaking evenly. “I haven’t been with another woman since the night we had dinner at blu.” When she first let me touch her. Caroline heard the words, even if he didn’t say them out loud.
Jack nodded. “Caro,” he said, turning to her. He nudged her head up, forcing her to look at him, at his gentle smile. “Darling, you can’t let just anyone play with your pussy. You know that, right?”
Caroline closed her eyes briefly, flinching, then faced him. “I know. Of course I know.” She turned her head to look at Matt. “I love you two. I’m not looking for anyone else.” She sighed hard and looked at Daniel. “I can’t explain what happened. I don’t even want him.”
Daniel lifted a brow and returned her look pointedly. “You were wet.”
Caroline turned away and caught Matt and Jack exchanging a look.
“She wants him,” Matt said.
“I don’t. I don’t.” Caroline knew the words were a plea, knew they sounded exactly like what they were. The men all knew whom she was trying to convince, and it wasn’t them.
“Wait.” Daniel said it with authority, drawing all attention to him. “I propose this. Jack, Matt, if you two don’t mind—”
“I mind,” Caro asserted.
Dan lifted his hand. “I said wait.”
Caroline was silenced. Oh good, she thought, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Another dom.
“Caroline,” he said speaking coolly, composed, as though they were talking about an experiment. “You seem to have at least some interest in me.” He silenced her objection this time with just another rise of a brow. “Your body betrays you.”
She huffed out a breath and cursed her inability to deny it.
“Jack, Matt, you’re my students for a couple more months. You know I don’t fuck my students.”
He moved that hand again, waving away their automatic objection. Caroline felt a little better, knowing he silenced them as easily as he did her.
“I get it,” he assured. “You’re not gay. You’re screwing her, double-teaming her, not each other. If I thought otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Caroline almost spoke up then. She’d be okay with that—with not having the conversation. And she’d been secretly amused that Matt and Jack took such pains to avoid touching each other when they made love to her. It was her body they were fucking, they made clear. Sharing her, both of them using her together, gave them incredible pleasure. But she was always between them, the frosting in their little sandwich cookie.
“And I assume,” Daniel went on, “in this little—” He waved his hand again until Jack supplied the word.
“Ménage.”
Daniel nodded his acceptance. “In this ménage, you have certain rules.” He raised that damn brow again. “Though perhaps Ms. Freeman doesn’t have a complete understanding of them.”
Oh, please. They might have implied rules. But it was his fault she’d broken them.
Jack took over, soothing her ruffled feathers. “Caroline loves us, and we don’t have any reason to doubt her faithfulness, if we accept here that she’s falling in love with you, too, Dan.”
“Jack.”
He looked at her. “It’s true, Caro. Would you rather we think you were cheating on us? Or that you let him touch you because you have feelings for him? That you might want him, too? With us?”
She sighed and looked down at the floor.
“So,” Matt said. “Ground rules. No fucking people outside the ménage. Agreed, Caro?”
He put a little extra emphasis on her name and had her rolling her eyes. “Yes!”
“Okay. And Dan, Caro has final say on whether you’re in.”
Dan didn’t seem worried. “I’m not part of it until you guys have had your defense, and we can consider you no longer my students. To my mind, that gives me until February to convince Caroline that she wants me in. To get her to admit she wants me in, to put a finer point on it.”
Finer point. She’d like to show him a fine point. In his eyeball.
Jack nodded. “Caro?”
She didn’t know what to say. Were they right? Did she want Daniel? Well, more to that fine point, was there any other explanation for what had happened? She couldn’t make the case that Daniel had forced himself on her. She distinctly remembered turning her body into him, her pussy seeking his fingers, wanting them deeper inside.
Lord. Jack hadn’t even been aware that night in the lab when Daniel had touched her. It must have been her own guilt that made her think Jack was toying with her, even punishing her.
She’d deserved it. Almost wanted it. Maybe even enjoyed it.
She sighed and wished for a moment alone with her men. Her two men. Doing the best she could, she turned her back to Daniel and drew Jack and Matt in with her arms.
“Maybe,” she said, looking from one to the other. “Maybe. I’m so sorry. I just never would have thought. I love you two, and I can’t imagine that I would want more. But—”
Matt tugged her hair, nestling his fingers along her neck. “But it appears that maybe you do.”
She chewed her lip. “Would you both really be okay with that?”
Jack spoke. “We both said yes to Daniel. We meant it.” He looked over her head to that one, who Caroline was sure was listening intently. “He’s a good man. We like and trust him. I can see sharing you with him, if that’s what you want. But it stops there, yeah? When Matt and I decided we could share you, we didn’t mean it to be with the whole world.”
Caroline moaned, shaking her head helplessly.
Matt grinned, nodding his agreement and obviously enjoying her fluster. He met Jack’s eyes. “Dan makes a good point. We’ve been letting that talented mouth of hers go to waste.”
He was talking about triple-fucking her. Caroline felt faint, considering that this might be a good time for a swoon, if ever there was one.
He pulled her close and spoke over her shoulder to Dan. “All right. We’ll give it until February. We can, like, hang out, all of us together, or just some of us. I guess,” he paused, looking at Jack for confirmation. “I guess you can spend time alone with her, uh—”
“Courting her?” Dan supplied.
“Yeah, I guess,” Matt said, with Jack nodding. “More ground rules, though. You can’t fuck her.”
Daniel looked them all over. “It’s my goal to seduce her, you know. You can’t entirely handicap me. I want to be able to kiss her, touch her. Make her come.”
Matt rocked her when she let out a mortified moan. “What do you think, Jack?”
Jack appeared to think it over. “How about we just say, none of his body parts inside her body parts?”
Daniel objected. “Come on. I’ve already finger-fucked her.”
“Enough!” Caroline didn’t want to hear more. More like, she wanted to jab pencils through her eardrums.
But Matt pulled her closer, shushing her. He looked at Jack. “Okay, how about we agree to fingers only? He can touch her.”
“Fingers,” Dan accepted, without waiting for either her or Jack’s agreement. And then made matters worse. “Anywhere I want.”
* * * *
In his head, Daniel crowed. Poor Caroline s
huddered and cried out again in objection. He couldn’t blame her. For all that they were talking about a four-way love affair, about her accommodating three virile men with her one delectable body, he really considered that she was basically a sweet innocent.
That’s what made the whole thing so fucking enticing. Somehow, having her, using her, sharing her with these two very likable, admirable guys was incredibly appealing.
It was a bit hard to fathom.
Daniel liked to fuck lovely women—he’d made quite a hobby of it. He was, in fact, a skilled, devoted hobbyist in that regard. But it had always been more play than anything, entertainment. It felt different with Caroline.
It was clear that Matt and Jack didn’t look at her as just a fuck, and he didn’t either. She was so very beguiling. He wanted her. Now. In February. And, he was pretty sure, every month and year after that.
He wanted her—and, yes, them—in his life.
He’d seen it, entirely easily, as he’d shown them his home. He could see the four of them living there, making a family.
He could see children. He’d been almost stunned with it, the appeal of that vision. In the nursery, Caroline had stroked her fingers over the old wood of the cradle that sat empty, waiting for the next generation of Ryans, as it had for many generations past.
He’d been physically captured by that touch—and yes, deeply aroused. Only the greatest restraint had kept him from picking her up and having his way with her in the old four-poster in the master suite.
It would be her body, her womb to supply that next generation, to give birth in that bed. He was sure of it, determined. Committed. And he would be the father—one of them, at least—who took part in the parenting of her children, just as she’d said she wanted that night at blu.
And Matt had just handed him the key to make it happen.
He was going to get to touch Caroline.
He knew she was a remarkably responsive woman, incredibly sexual.
If he got to touch her, there was no way she could hold out against him.
So he smiled, satisfied with this victory that was the turning point of the war. Unwinding from his chair, he stood. “All right, then. I think I’ll take myself off to bed. You guys make yourselves at home—down here if you like, and then in whatever bedroom, or bedrooms, that you want.”
Three Men and a Woman: Caroline (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 13
