by Gigi Moore
Thayne opened his eyes to stare down at Maia. He remembered Cade’s dream, their parents’ words of warning. He remembered his own promise to himself. “I have to tell you something.”
“Don’t sound so grave. You’ll be back soon.”
“There are no guarantees in life, honey.”
“I know that already, so you don’t need to scare me.”
“I’m not trying to scare you. I’m just being realistic.”
“Thayne—”
“I love you, Maia,” he blurted then rushed ahead with the rest. “I just wanted you to know how I feel, in case I don’t get another chance to tell you.” He watched the tears well in her eyes and pulled her close. “Please don’t.”
“How do you expect me to react when you say something like that?”
Thayne pulled away, smiling as he thumbed the tears from her eyes. “You could try telling me you love me, too.” He hated the hopeful tone in his voice but couldn’t help it showing.
“You know I do.”
“Goddess, you’re worse than Cade.”
“Hey!”
Thayne laughed at his brother’s affronted tone.
“I love you, Thayne. I have for a long time, and I don’t want you to think any different,” Maia said, turning and reaching a hand out to Cade as she stood in the shelter of Thayne’s embrace.
Cade walked over, hands stuffed in his jeans pockets as if he didn’t know what else to do with them, as if he needed to keep himself separated from them.
Thayne knew how hard it was for his brother to express his feelings and doubted Cade had ever used the three cherished words that Thayne had just used with Maia.
He almost regretted spilling his own guts. Fate, however, had forced his hand.
“Cade?”
He looked from Maia to Thayne and back again, shaking his head. “I can’t do this now. I don’t know if I ever can.”
“I understand,” Maia said, but Thayne could see that she really didn’t. He saw, too, how much Cade’s rejection upset her. If he hadn’t known his brother was just as afraid and in as much pain as him and Maia, he might have slugged Cade for hurting her.
“Even if you can’t say it, it’s not going to stop me from saying it.” Maia smiled and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I love you, Cade.”
Cade flushed but didn’t say anything, just shuffled his feet like a little boy who’d just been kissed by his crush.
Thayne felt the tension coming off his brother in waves—most of it sexual—and wasn’t surprised. Cade had always let his body and actions do the talking for him.
Making love would probably go a long way to easing all of their stress, but Thayne didn’t know if now was the right time. He was sure, however, that any time was the right time as far as Cade was concerned.
His brother proved Thayne’s point when he took his hands out of his pockets to cup Maia’s face and leaned in to kiss her deeply on the lips.
Thayne felt the shudders riding Maia’s body right before she left his embrace to go into Cade’s. He watched them for a moment, cock quickly hardening at the sight of their passionate kisses, the sounds of their groans.
He wanted to join them but had not gotten over feeling like he didn’t belong, not even after their numerous routine encounters together. He didn’t know if that meant he was unwilling to share Maia on every level with his brother or he didn’t trust his brother to treat Maia the way she deserved to be treated.
As far as Thayne was concerned, Cade had already proved himself unworthy by not being able to return Maia’s professions of love.
Yet, Maia went to him willingly, seeming to want and love Cade as much as she loved Thayne. She must have seen something in Cade worthy of her love even if Thayne didn’t.
He, however, remembered one of their first encounters since arriving back in time, specifically, the first time he had linked them all with his telepathy and they had experienced sex magick. From that scene alone he knew of what feelings his brother was capable and knew they weren’t all about sex with Maia.
Why was Cade holding back? Why was he keeping his feelings to himself when so much was at stake for all of them?
“Thayne?”
He shook himself to look at Maia. She and Cade had already stripped down to their underwear while he’d been busy woolgathering.
Sometimes he felt like he and his brother were two halves of a perfect whole. He had no problems expressing himself verbally once he put his mind to it, and Cade certainly didn’t have any problems expressing himself physically. Together, they made the ideal man for a woman.
Maybe this was the exact reason their parents and the powers that be claimed they were soul mates and belonged together. They all balanced each other out.
Thayne kicked out of his boots and socks and stripped out of his shirt and jeans before he walked to the bed in front of which Cade and Maia stood.
Maia reached out her arms to accept him into the circle, and he felt like he came home.
How could he question the rightness of their unions or wonder whether or not he belonged when her welcomes were always so spontaneous and unreserved?
“We need to get in some practice, now more than ever,” Maia said.
Thayne smiled at her attempt to relegate their lovemaking to a training session for their sex magick.
“Don’t ever think that we need an excuse to make love to you, Maia,” Cade whispered and buried his face against her neck.
Thayne could forgive his brother all past transgressions when he took the words out of his mouth like that.
He didn’t waste time nuzzling the opposite side of Maia’s neck. He inhaled her fresh lavender scent that didn’t eradicate the underlying coconut and patchouli combination he was still used to. It was a potent mix, one that had him moaning and pressing himself against her front, eager to get inside her.
He hadn’t known how much he’d missed or wanted her—how much he wanted this closeness to them both—until this moment. He hadn’t known how much he needed them both before going into the lion’s den with Tommy Cole’s parents.
Thayne slid Maia’s petticoats down her legs and waited for her to step out of them while Cade slid her camisole up and off.
Once Maia was standing before them naked, Thayne took a moment to admire her firm, lush curves with his eyes and his hands. He caressed her from her head to her feet, lingering at her pussy and teasing her folds with one finger before lifting her in his arms and placing her in the middle of the bed.
As Cade climbed onto the bed, concentrating his attention on Maia’s breasts and mouth, Thayne positioned himself between her thighs. He inhaled the musky-sweet scent that was all uniquely Maia. He slid his hands beneath her ass and drew her close as he buried her cunt beneath his mouth, taunting her sensitive folds with his beard stubble and tongue.
“Oh please…I want you both now…”
Thayne barely reacted when she buried one hand in his hair and the other in Cade’s. Without preamble, he thrust two fingers inside Maia, scissoring them back and forth as he sucked and licked her inflamed clit. He kept up a steady pace, synchronizing his movements with Cade’s until Maia was wildly bucking beneath them.
Less than a minute later, she came hard, quivering against Thayne’s mouth, and he greedily swallowed her juices.
Cade kissed his way down her body until he nudged Thayne out of the way so that he could get a taste. Once he had gotten his fill he stood and hurriedly pulled off his underwear, leaving him as naked as Maia.
Taking his cue, Thayne pulled off his own underwear, positioning himself in front of Maia as she turned on her side and arched against him. Thayne groaned at the sizzling contact of her pussy against his hard, sensitive cock.
Cade settled behind her, applying a liberal amount of their trusty flaxseed oil to Maia’s asshole and his cock. “I want you inside her first, Thayne. I want to feel Maia’s ass tighten around me while her pussy’s stretched around you, gloving you tight,” Cade murmured
.
Maia shuddered at his wicked words and wrapped her arms around Thayne. She stared up at him for a long moment before snuggling her face against his shoulder. She let her hips do the talking for her, grinding against him until he guided the head of his cock to her slick cunt. He spent a long moment teasing her soaked folds before Maia whimpered in frustration and he finally drove into her, deep and hard.
She sighed. “Oh yes…just the way I like it…”
He knew she liked it this way. She also liked it slow and gentle. Thayne liked it any way Maia did, and he was willing to do anything to please her. He knew Cade was, too
Thayne returned her firm hug, his chest making contact with Cade’s knuckles as his brother cupped Maia’s breasts for leverage.
Once Cade pushed inside her from the back, seating himself to the hilt, and they were all physically joined, Thayne did his thing and psychically connected them.
It got easier and easier each time they had sex, so much so that it was almost second nature. He didn’t ask for permission any longer, already knowing he had it as Maia and Cade welcomed him inside.
Thayne closed his eyes against the double vision that invariably came with seeing things in the corporeal world and seeing things in the psychic world. His mental eyes were immediately greeted with the pulsing red and blue cords representing his, Maia’s, and Cade’s thoughts twining around each other. If Maia hadn’t just told him how she felt, he would have known she loved him from her thoughts alone.
Thayne sensed Cade’s thoughts, chaotic, inhibited, and measured, as if he allowed their joining out of duress and really didn’t want to play a part.
When Maia began grinding her hips back and forth between them, she pulled Cade into their circle despite his hesitance.
Cade slid his hands down Maia’s body until he reached her hips and latched on to guide her movements to his satisfaction, the rough roll of his hips.
Thayne followed suit, gyrating and grinding his hips to match Maia and Cade’s rhythm as he wove through their mental threads. He maintained the connection and drew pleasure and sustenance from their auras. He could see and feel Maia’s and Cade’s love for him as well as their love for each other. He didn’t need Cade to verbalize his feelings to confirm this.
Thayne reached out and touched Cade’s cord, stroking it and letting his brother know that he and Maia were with him and they weren’t going anywhere.
Cade released a hoarse cry as he drove into Maia’s pussy and desperately circled his hips like his life depended on getting off. He buried his face against Maia’s back as if he could run away and hide from his feelings or Thayne’s psychic reassurance.
Thayne held tight to Cade’s cord and almost went into orbit when his brother climaxed with a mighty shout and Maia simultaneously squeezed her pussy muscles around his cock in the throes of her own orgasm. “Oh, Goddess!” Thayne squeezed Maia to him, spilling the last of his seed inside her as he tumbled headlong into his own completion.
Panting, he collapsed onto his back, bringing Maia with him as Cade disengaged.
Maia lay against Thayne, cooing to him as if he were a young child who’d taken a painful fall off his bike, and like a little boy he turned into her, seeking succor.
He nuzzled his face against her breasts, filling the empty space that Cade had left when he’d disconnected from them—physically and mentally.
Since he’d been in the Old West, Thayne had let his hair grow much longer than he usually wore it. Both Cade and Maia liked the look on him. He had to admit he kind of liked the wildness of it, too. He especially liked it now, smiling as Maia pushed the damp tendrils away from his face and cupped his cheeks with both hands.
Thayne opened his eyes to find her peering at him.
“I appreciate what you tried to do,” she whispered.
“What did I try to do?”
“Let him know we’re here for him, that we love him.”
“I don’t think it helped.”
Maia glanced over her shoulder to see Cade on the other side of the room, already pulling his jeans up over his hips and buttoning them closed.
He frowned when he caught her and Thayne looking at him. “How long are you guys going to lie around letting time pass you by? We’ve got things to do.”
“See,” Thayne said.
“He’s just in denial. Deep down he knows the truth,” Maia said.
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Cade grumbled.
Thayne slapped Maia on the butt and flipped her onto her back.
“Hey!”
He kissed her hard, reluctant to leave her but knowing that Cade was right and they all had things to do. He leaped out of bed to get into his own jeans, glancing back at Maia with a tender smile. “Playtime’s over, honey.” In more ways than one.
Chapter 24
Cade sat on his side of Thayne’s buggy ensconced in his own little world as they bumped and rolled their way to the Coles’ farm on the outskirts of town. No matter how much he tried to separate himself from his brother and his aura, however, he couldn’t get away from what had happened back at the boarding house.
He hadn’t been prepared for that scene between him and Thayne, much less the one that had followed between them and Maia. He hadn’t been prepared for the battering his emotions took in that session of lovemaking and sex magick. Usually he got through it able to restrain his feelings, at the very least keep them to himself. Even when Thayne was in his mind and they were all connected and it was hard to keep anything to himself, he managed to maintain his emotional distance.
That hadn’t been the case this time, which told him a few things, the most important one being that he probably needed to move out of the boarding house and on his own.
The idea sent a knot of panic shooting to his chest.
Despite all his behavior to the contrary, he didn’t want to go away from Maia and Thayne. He couldn’t imagine not waking up next to them every morning, seeing Maia’s vibrant smile and the devilish twinkle in her eyes when she tried to start something between them all in the name of “practice.” He couldn’t imagine not sharing her with Thayne and seeing Thayne’s rapturous look over Maia’s shoulder when he came inside her at the same time as Cade. He couldn’t imagine not spending quiet evenings unwinding with them after a long day of Thayne’s medical runs and visits and Cade’s helping Maia and Sabrina hunt up herbs for their fledgling notions and potions business.
He couldn’t imagine being without his family.
Why had he pushed them away?
The question begged for an answer that he just did not have, because when he got right down to it, he needed Maia and Thayne and the routine that they had all fallen into here in Elk Creek. He needed it all like a plant needed sun and water. He didn’t think he could survive, at least not thrive, without the support system that Thayne and Maia provided. Cade could pretend that connection and support weren’t important to him, especially when Thayne used his psychic gifts and took them all out of themselves, but the truth was Cade needed Maia and Thayne as much as he loved them.
“I should have told her,” Cade murmured and felt Thayne’s gaze briefly touch him as he shifted it from the road.
“You should have.”
“I do love her.”
“Why are you telling me and not her? She can’t read your mind.”
“No, but you can.”
Thayne clicked his teeth at the horses pulling the buggy and drew them to a stop.
Cade loved how his brother was able to transition from riding horses for pleasure and using the buggy he’d inherited from Dr. Hopwood for business. He seemed to switch from each with such ease and use both with equal skill. It had worked the same way with settling into life in Elk Creek. From the beginning Thayne seemed to have taken to the place and people like a duck to a pond, while Cade felt like no matter how long they stayed he floundered. Even Maia, who still worried about being the only black person who actually lived in the town, seemed to
have fallen under the romanticism of living in the Old West, working at taming her men and the land as she did something she’d always wanted to do in building a business of her own with Sabrina.
How could he tell Thayne all of this? How could he show any vulnerability when he and Maia needed him now more than ever to help fend off the madman’s threat? How could he abandon them now, or ever?
“You know I would never tell Maia something you didn’t want her to know. Whatever way you feel about her, she’ll have to learn it from you. I’m not letting you off the hook that easily, Cade.”
Leave it to Thayne to be tough and put things into perspective.
Cade needed that, though. He needed Thayne’s tough love. When they’d been kids, his brother had always been able to keep him grounded and centered with his inescapable, mandatory logic. Things had not changed since they’d become adults.
“You’re right. I know you are.”
“So what gives?”
“You know I’ve never been good with showing affection, not when it counts. I’m not like you, bro.” Not to mention he was confused. He didn’t want to tell Maia he loved her when his feelings were so tied up with his parents’ warning and the madman’s threat. It was all too possible that what he felt for Maia was a strong sense of duty and protectiveness reinforced by a healthy dose of lust. Maybe he didn’t love her at all.
Cade envied Thayne his certainty, his ability to know what he wanted—whether it was the medical profession or Maia—and pursue it with unqualified passion. He’d never been able to do it. All his life he’d drifted from one place to another, from one woman to another, never settling on one job, one home, or one mate for an extended run—until now, and he’d had to go back in time more than a hundred years to discover that longevity.
“I’m not going to tell you how to handle your business, but you should have told her.”
