“You want to know where we go from here,” Ryan said.
“Yeah. I mean, normally if two people confess their love, they move into together, get married, or whatever.”
“I thought we were at the moving in part, sweetheart. Don’t you want to stay with us?” Brett asked.
They aren’t getting this at all.
“Of course I do. I want that more than anything, even if my family doesn’t understand. If I didn’t, I would have stayed in Los Angeles.”
“Then stay,” Ryan replied, moving toward the refrigerator. “How hard is that?”
“Okay. Say I stay. What then? What happens in the future? I obviously can’t marry both of you.”
“Whoa. No one said anything about marriage,” Brett answered, stepping back.
Her heart dropped to her toes. I hope this wasn’t a huge mistake.
“I mean. Maybe someday, but for now, we just need to leave things the way they are,” Brett added.
Cocking her head to the side, she finally began to understand. “You’ve been burned.”
Brett moved toward the living room and took a seat in one of the leather chairs, not meeting her gaze when she sat across from him.
“Tell me about her, Brett.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Whit.”
“How can you say you love me if you’re still hurting?”
“I do love you, but what’s in the past is just that, in the past.”
“And I want to avoid the same issues, but I can’t if you don’t tell me what they were.”
He tipped his head back against the chair and sighed. Whitney didn’t think he’d answer until the words spilled from his mouth, making her heart break in two for him.
“She cheated on me, Whitney. I caught her fucking one of my co-workers in the doctors’ lounge at work. I came in for an extra shift she didn’t know I was working. I walked in on them.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. No wonder he tried to tempt me into having sex with him while I was still married to Eric. He wanted to test me. Dropping on her knees at his feet, she laid her cheek against his knee.
“Did you and Ryan ever share her?”
“No.”
“You don’t think of it as cheating to share me with Ryan?”
Fingers slipped through her hair as he let a curl slide between them.
“There’s a difference when I share you with him. We both love you and want you here with us. My relationship with Corrine never met my needs. I see that now. She only wanted the prestige of being married to a doctor, not to be my other half. You are the other half of my heart, or third if that makes sense. But, I’m not sure I could ever marry you. Are you okay with that?”
“If that’s the way it has to be, Brett. As I said before, I can’t marry both of you anyway. If that means we all stay single in the eyes of the law, then so be it. It doesn’t mean I won’t think of you two as my husbands if we get to that.” Lifting her head, she met his intense gaze. “I think we are rushing things right now.”
“I think so, too,” Ryan said, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. “Enough of this serious stuff. I need to hold you.”
“Are you saying you’ve never been in a serious relationship, Ryan?”
He frowned and pulled her down on the couch with him. “I never said that.”
Damn it! Both of them have been hurt. Am I walking into two broken hearts that may never be able to move on?
“So what’s your story?”
“I was engaged. Sara died in the canyon. She’s the reason I became a rescue paramedic. I felt so useless when I sat there holding her hand as she took her last breath.”
“Shit, Ryan. I’m sorry. No wonder you were so intense when you picked me up.”
“It’s okay. Five years was a long time ago.”
Whitney took his face between her hands and kissed him. Pressing her forehead against his, she looked deep into his hazel eyes, but only saw the love he held for her there. No pain, no regret, just love.
Wiggling around so she could see Brett, she held out her hand, hoping he would accept her offer and join them on the couch. She needed to feel the two men she loved next to her more than anything at that moment.
After a moment’s hesitation, he moved to her side and slid in next to her.
“I want to say something to both of you, and I want you to be quiet until I’m finished, okay?”
They both nodded.
“I love you, both of you, more than anything, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If that includes marriage, that’s fine. If it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. We’ll take it one day at a time, but I want you both to know that I’m not going anywhere.” She touched Ryan’s face. “I’m not leaving.” Cupping Brett’s cheek, she said, “And I’m not going to cheat on either of you. I would never do that. It’s not in my makeup. My father taught me to value fidelity above all else, and after Eric’s cheating, I couldn’t put anyone through what I went through. I felt like I wasn’t good enough, couldn’t keep him satisfied sexually, if he had to cheat. If, for some reason, either of you get to the point you feel there’s something missing, please tell me. Communication has to be the most important thing in this relationship. If we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.” After a quick brush of her lips against Brett’s lips, then Ryan’s, she sat back and smiled. “I’m really horny, so one of you better make love to me soon.”
With a warm chuckle, Brett swept her up in his arms and headed down the hall toward her room as Ryan followed close behind.
“How about both of us?”
“Mmm…sounds like a plan to me.”
“Shall we flip for who gets the back and who gets the front? Heads I get the front, tails I get back,” Ryan said behind them.
“Incorrigible, both of you,” she whispered, already feeling her pussy clench. The thought of both of them making love to her at the same time made her wet and ready. I’m such a wanton woman, but God, I love it!
* * * *
Eric watched from behind the curtained window as the three of them moved up the hall. I bet she’s fucking both of them at the same time. Little bitch! She’d never let me fuck her ass, but she’s letting them. He moved to the window a little farther up from where he’d been watching and saw the light flick on for a moment. The sight through the gauze curtains on the window pissed him off even more as the light went off again. His dick swelled behind the fly of his pants as he watched the two men peel her shirt off over her head. The one named Ryan stood behind her, kissing her bare shoulder and cupping her breasts in his hands as the one named Brett kissed her from his position in front. Next, her bra disappeared, and Brett took her nipple in his mouth, sucking it until she squirmed. Ryan slipped a hand inside the front of her jeans, sliding his finger between her legs. Eric could hear her whimpers of need from his spot outside and her cries of passion as she called their names.
Unable to stand the need raging through his blood as he watched, Eric unzipped his pants and wrapped his hand around his cock as Whitney got fucked by the two men inside the house. Ryan ate her pussy and finger fucked her while she sucked Brett’s cock deep into her mouth. Eric’s strokes got faster and faster the more she begged for them to give her what she wanted.
When they finally got around to the actual act the pain in Eric’s dick and balls bordered on excruciating. Ryan slipped into her pussy and Brett reamed her ass as cum spurted from Eric’s cock, shooting over his hand while he muffled his cry of satisfaction by biting his free hand. He leaned back against the tree, trying to catch his breath.
I haven’t been that damned horny in a long time.
Whitney screamed as she came, and Eric heard the satisfied grunts of the two men a moment later.
Eric quickly zipped his pants back up and scooted from his position, returning to his car for the gun on the seat. Now’s the time, while they are sedated and satisfied from their romp. He grabbed the Berretta and headed back toward the house. The h
andle on the front entrance turned easily in his hand as he quietly let himself inside and shut it behind him. It took him a minute to get the layout and which direction he needed to head to find the bedroom where the threesome lay sedated.
The whisper of voices met his ear as he moved down the hall. Whitney giggled, and Eric ground his teeth together. Her laugh always did grate on his nerves.
Turning the knob quietly, he eased the door open a crack, enough that he could see the three of them cuddled together on the bed. Rolling his eyes, he pushed it open a little farther.
“Isn’t this fucking cozy.”
Three sets of eyes fastened on him as he leaned against the doorjamb.
“Eric,” she whispered.
Ryan jumped from one side of the bed buck-ass naked and growled. Rage turned his lips into a scowl of contempt while his eyebrows slashed over his eyes in a menacing frown.
“Uh-uh. Be careful, cowboy,” Eric spat, waving the gun in front of him. “I don’t think you really want to find out if this thing is loaded or not. Do you?”
“Ryan!” Whitney screamed. “Please.”
“I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” Ryan snarled.
“I doubt that, buddy, but you’re welcome to try. Blood doesn’t bother me,” Eric said as he turned the gun on the couple sitting on the bed. “Do you want it to be your cousin’s or Whitney’s?”
Ryan didn’t move.
“That’s better. Now get dressed.”
Whitney and Brett got up from the bed and reached for their clothes, and Ryan moved back to where his lay on the floor.
“Not you, love,” he stated, pointing the gun. “You’re going in nothing more than a t-shirt and shoes.”
“Eric, please. Do you want to humiliate me, too?”
An evil laugh ripped from his mouth. “I spent three days in a filthy jail cell, fending off men who wanted to stick their prick in my ass, take my clothes, and make me suck their dick because of you, and you have the balls to ask me that?” He waved the gun again. “No, sweetheart, you’ll go just as you are.”
Brett finished dressing and wrapped an arm around her shoulders when Eric waved them toward the door with Ryan following.
“Get the car keys, cowboy. You’re driving.”
* * * *
Whitney shivered in the afternoon air, even though it was still warm outside.
Eric sat behind Ryan. She sat in front, and Brett sat behind her.
“Where are you taking us, Eric?” she asked, trapping her hands between her knees to still the shaking.
“Somewhere no one will ever find you.” He pressed the gun to Brett’s temple, and she whimpered, scared he’d do something like pull the trigger.
“Eric. I’ll do anything you want, just leave them alone, please.”
“Isn’t that fucking sweet! I couldn’t give a shit about you or what you want, Whitney.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Other than to ass fuck you like you let them do? You never let me even when I asked.”
She bit her lip as tears rolled down her face.
“It doesn’t matter. Maria and Mallory made up for your lack of imagination in the bedroom.”
“Maria and Mallory? Good God, Eric. How many women were you sleeping with while we were married?”
“Anyone I could get, sweetheart. You were an absolute bore. Now, shut your mouth.” He pressed the gun harder against Brett’s head again. “Drive. Interstate Forty. We’ve got a ways to go.”
The tension in the car felt like it could have been cut with a knife as they continued to drive into the fading night. Think. I’ve got to think of something to stop this.
They pulled up to the ranger station going into the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest sometime later.
“Here.” Eric handed Ryan the money needed, and she could see Ryan trying to communicate to the ranger something was amiss, but the man ignored them and waved them on through.
They continued to drive until they pulled into the small turn-out Eric indicated.
“Out of the car,” he ordered. Once they all stood in front of the car, he waved the gun toward the vast desert in front of them. “Walk.”
“You can’t be serious, Eric. There’s nothing out there except emptiness.”
“What does it matter? Within an hour or so, there won’t be any reason for you to care. Your bodies will lay in the middle of that expanse, waiting for the buzzards and whatever else wants to feast on your flesh. I’ll be headed back to L.A. to pick up where I left off.”
“My father will—”
“Your father won’t do shit, Whitney. He’s a dried-up old man who should have retired years ago and let me take over the office. I could have made them famous.”
“Famous for what, Eric? Defending gangbangers and hoodlums, making sure they never did time for their crimes?”
Eric pulled back his hand and slapped her hard across the face, throwing her to the ground. Brett grabbed her hands and helped her to her feet as Ryan growled low in his throat.
“What’cha gonna do, cowboy?”
“You better plan on using that thing, because if you leave either Brett or me alive, you’ll be a dead man before you can make it back to the car.”
“Oh, I plan to. Now, walk.”
Ryan and Brett flanked her, helping her to walk as they headed down the embankment.
“We have to think of something,” she murmured.
“Don’t worry, princess.”
“How can I not worry, Ryan? He’s going to kill us.”
“Shut up!” Eric yelled.
They continued to move deeper into the desert and even the blooming flowers and flittering insects couldn’t draw her into their stark beauty.
“That’s far enough,” Eric said. “Turn around.”
They stopped near a pretty bush blooming with bright purple flowers, and Whitney heard a faint buzz near her ear. She turned her head and saw several bees flitting from flower to flower.
Wait, Eric is allergic to bee stings.
Shifting to her left, she tried to move around so Eric stood near the bush. Brett and Ryan moved with her.
Eric seemed oblivious to their movements as he came closer, waving the gun in their faces.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you die. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass since I met you. Wining and dining you. Making you fall in love with me so I could get my hands on your parents’ money and your daddy’s law firm.”
Ryan dove, knocking Eric over and rolling with him across the desert floor as they struggled for the gun. Eric managed to hit Ryan and knock him sideways as he struggled to his feet. Eric shuffled back, tripping over a rock, and falling backwards toward the bush.
He started waving his arms and screaming as a large cloud of bees exploded from the bush and began attacking him.
Whitney, Ryan, and Brett backed up several hundreds of yards. They watched in horror as Eric was stung multiple times, all over his body.
The bees disappeared quickly, and the threesome approached the prone body on the ground.
Eric groaned, his breath coming out in a wheezing sound as he struggled to breathe.
“Whitney,” he moaned. “Help me.”
Brett did what he was trained to do, dropping next to the man and trying desperately to open his airway.
“Is he allergic to bee stings?” Brett asked, glancing at Whitney.
“Yes.”
“Does he have an EpiPen somewhere?”
“I don’t know,” Whitney answered.
“Search his pockets while I keep his airway open, Ryan.”
Ryan didn’t move.
“Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.”
“We can’t leave him like this, even if he was going to kill us. It’s against everything we believe in, and you know that,” Brett spat. “Now help me.”
With a grumble, Ryan moved toward the two men, kicked the gun away from Eric’s grasp, and began searc
hing his pockets.
“Here,” Ryan said when he’d completed his search, holding out the pen.
“Give it.”
“Damn it, Brett!”
“Give it, Ryan. You can’t ignore this.”
“Fuck!” Ryan stabbed Eric in the leg, pushing the contents of the pen into his skin. “There.”
“You have your cell. I saw it in your pocket, Ryan. Call 911.”
“Fine.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “I need rescue near the Painted Desert Inn. About a mile into the desert. Bring life support. We have a man with an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting.”
Within several minutes, they could hear the helicopter in the distance as it got near.
“Jack’s flying. He’ll probably land on that mesa over there,” Ryan said, pointing to the nearby flat area.
“They better get here quick. I’m not sure how much longer he can wait. He’s about done. I can’t keep his airway open. He’s swelling too badly.”
“Ryan?” a voice called from the distance.
“Over here,” he yelled back.
Seconds later, the paramedics were by their side, and Ryan wrapped his arm around her, holding her close. The tremors started in her legs and soon encompassed her whole body.
“It’s over, princess. We’re safe now.”
She watched as Cale and another man she didn’t recognize worked on Eric. They gave him more epinephrine and stuck a breathing tube down his throat before they loaded him on the stretcher and headed back for the helicopter.
“Let’s get out of here,” Brett said, joining Ryan and Whitney before he took her hand. “You okay, sweetheart?”
With short, jerky movements, she nodded but pressed her lips together to hold in the sobs threatening to erupt.
When they reached the car, Ryan opened the trunk and pulled out a blanket. He wrapped it around her shoulders and then pulled her to his chest.
“I was so scared,” she whispered, pressing her face to the crook of his neck.
“I know,” he murmured into her hair.
Brett pressed against her back, sandwiching her between the two of them and rubbing her arms with his hands. His lips touched her ear. “If anything would have happened to you, he would have had to kill me. I wouldn’t have rested until he was dead.”
Sullivan, Sandy - Unexpected Lovers [Between the Sheets 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 14
