Between Brothers

by Lauren Gallagher

  I couldn’t imagine how I’d go about getting him into bed, though. They lived together, which made locations somewhat complicated. On one hand, Darren and I were just casual lovers, so I was free to sleep with whomever else I chose. On the other, I was fairly certain that they would both balk at fucking the same woman.

  An image of fucking both of them at the same time flickered through my mind. My mouth watered. I’d always thought a threesome with two men would be hot, but Eric and Darren? I’d have sold my soul for something that hot.

  “Eric, check that out,” Darren said in a conspiratorial whisper, bringing my attention back to the present.

  “What?” Eric said, leaning forward.

  Darren gestured a few rows down. “The girl with the pretzels.”

  Eric and I both looked in the direction he pointed, and I rolled my eyes as I saw the girl selling soft pretzels. She was Barbie doll cute: big breasts, blonde hair, long legs. Definitely Eric’s type.

  “Oh damn,” Eric said, taking in a hiss of breath. “Now she is hot.” He looked at Darren. “I’ve got a twenty that says I can get her number.”

  “You’re on,” Darren said. They each pulled a twenty out of their wallets and handed them to me. I laughed and shook my head. This was pretty much a tradition at every game; hardly an inning passed that the brothers didn’t make some sort of ridiculous, good-natured bet that resulted in me holding the ante until the bet was won.

  Eric shoved his wallet into his back pocket as he got up. The row of seats in front of us was empty, so he jumped over the back of one seat and started out of the stands.

  “This should be entertaining,” I said.

  “It always is,” Darren replied. We watched Eric bound down the steps and approach the girl. They exchanged pleasantries and gestures over the bags of pretzels, and Eric pulled his wallet out of his pocket as the girl plucked three bags from the case.

  “If she knocks him back, I’m going to laugh while he eats his three pretzels of shame,” I said, barely keeping myself from cracking up.

  “Pretzels of shame,” Darren snorted, shaking his head.

  Eric paid, took the pretzels, but made no move to leave. He laid on his charm, and he laid it on thick. It always amazed me how easily he could go from rough-around-the-edges to almost boyishly adorable with just the right curl of his lip and shift of his eyebrows. Her smile broadened and the sudden color in her cheeks was visible even from where we sat.

  “Eric Knight is up to bat,” Darren whispered in a mock-announcer voice. “He’s got her attention…he’s bought her pretzels…he’s testing the water…he’s complimenting her shoes…” He paused. Eric was saying something. Darren said, “And he goes for the pick-up line. Here comes the pitch, he swings, and-oh no!” We both stifled laughter as the girl gave an apologetic shrug and showed him her left hand. The stadium lights caught the ring just enough to let us see it sparkle. Darren snickered. “And Knight strikes out again.”

  I struggled to contain my laughter and put on a sympathetic face as Eric came back up to our seats, pretzels in hand.

  “Most expensive damned pretzels I’ve ever bought,” he muttered, shaking his head. He took one for himself and held the others out to us as he returned to his seat.

  “No thanks,” I said.

  “Bro, those pretzels of shame are all yours,” Darren said. I lost it. So did Darren.

  “Pretzels of shame?” Eric said, trying unsuccessfully to sound disgusted. “Fuck you both.”

  I handed Darren the twenties and glanced down at the pretzel girl just in time to see her look up at Eric. She was still blushing, a wide grin on her face. Then, she went back to selling her pretzels.

  Her loss, I thought.

  Ten

  Lying in bed, after we’d caught our breath, Darren kissed me and whispered, “You look like you’re thinking about something.”

  My face burned. “You could say that.”

  His smile fell and he cocked his head. “Something wrong?”

  “What? No, no, definitely not, I just…” I trailed off, then took a breath. “I’ve just been thinking about…” Oh come on, just say it. I looked him in the eye. “Have you ever had a threesome?”

  His eyebrows jumped slightly. Then he nodded. “I have, yes.”

  “Really?”

  “Why?”

  “Just curious.”

  He flashed me a toothy grin. “Been doing a little fantasizing?”

  My cheeks were on fire, so there was no point in denying it. I shrugged and laughed. “I’ve always thought it would be interesting.”

  “Oh,” he nodded. “It is. It definitely is.”

  I regarded him silently for a second, then said, “So if I wanted you to join me for a threesome, you’d do it?”

  “Depends on the third person,” he said. “But I wouldn’t be opposed to it on principle, no.”

  “And if the other person was a man?”

  “Depends on the guy,” he said without hesitation. “I mean, I’m not into guys, so I wouldn’t be doing anything to him, but if you wanted to have two guys paying attention to you…” He grinned. “I’m certainly not opposed to that.”

  “Duly noted,” I said. “Now I just have to find another guy.”

  “Good luck,” he chuckled. “Some guys really don’t dig the idea of being naked in the same bed with another guy, even if there’s a woman between them.”

  I wonder what you would think about being naked in the same bed with your brother, even with a woman between you. The thought made me snicker.

  “What?” he asked, cocking his head.

  “Nothing.”

  “It had to be something,” he said. “Come on, tell me.”

  There’s no way in hell I’m telling you that, not tonight. “Just picturing two guys freaking out if they bumped into each other.”

  He laughed aloud. “It happens. But if you get a couple of guys to agree to a threesome, one would hope they could be adults about it. It’s not like other guys have cooties.”

  I laughed. “Well, I’m going to hold you to this. When I find a willing third party, that is.”

  He smiled and kissed me. “Like I said, it depends on the guy. But if he’s cool, hell yeah, I’d do that for you.”

  “So you don’t mind sharing?” I teased.

  He snorted. “Yeah right. Mr. Possessive, that’s me.” We both laughed. Then he ran his fingers through my hair. “And to be honest, I think it would be hot.”

  “You would?”

  “Absolutely. Seeing you get railed by another guy? Watching you getting that turned on?” He released a breath. “Yeah, it would be fucking beautiful.”

  I grinned. “And here I thought I would have to twist your arm into doing it.”

  “Not at all,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me again. “Are you sure you don’t have any friends you could call tonight?”

  Is your brother home? “I’m afraid I haven’t approached this with anyone else yet.”

  “Damn,” he whispered. He put his arms around me and kissed me. “I guess I’ll have to take care of you myself tonight.”

  Eleven

  Well, here goes, I thought as Will and I got into a cab to go back to his place. As we kissed in the backseat, barely keeping ourselves from tearing each other’s clothes off right there in the taxi, I prayed that he wasn’t a dud in the sack. Now that I knew what good sex—no, sizzling hot great sex— was like, I just couldn’t deal with another night of sexual idiocy.

  I met Will at the same club in which I’d met Marty. He didn’t stir quite the same cravings in me that Darren and his brother did, but he was attractive: A dimpled smile that preceded a deep, attentive kiss. Expressive grey eyes that alternated between boyishly cute and devilishly devious. Broad shoulders—tattooed by the looks of it—that just begged to be gripped during the throes of an orgasm.

  “I can’t wait to taste your pussy,” he growled as the cab pulled into his drive.

  I shivered. Please l
et him be good at it. Please, for the love of God. Will paid the cab driver and fumbled with his house key. I kissed his neck and ran my hand over the front of his jeans. He sucked in a breath, sliding an arm around my waist as he struggled to get the door unlocked. He cursed under his breath, but the key finally cooperated.

  In his bedroom, he released his grasp on me and went about taking off his own clothes. I took his cue and did the same. To my great delight, his shoulders were indeed tattooed. My mouth watered; I loved ink, and he had no shortage of it. His shoulders and upper arms were covered with various designs, some hinting at a military past, others appearing to be tribal in nature. To my surprise, he also had a large tattoo of a howling wolf on his right hip, and my hand was immediately drawn to it, needing to touch its soft ridges. He pulled me into a kiss as I ran my fingers over his various tattoos.

  As his body pressed against mine, his cock prodded my thigh. He wasn’t enormous, but he wasn’t lacking either. I just hoped he knew how to use it.

  I silently cursed my own cynicism. Obviously some men out there knew what they were doing. I couldn’t go into this assuming that Will was a sexual idiot, particularly not when his mouth was telling me otherwise with his gentle, insistent kiss.

  I swallowed my doubts and bitterness, vowing to give him the benefit of the doubt, particularly as he laid me on the bed and nudged my knees apart.

  The heat of his tongue met my pussy. He lapped gently, sliding his tongue in and out, running it all around my pussy lips. Everywhere but my clit.

  Patience, I told myself. He’s getting there.

  His tongue continued its exploration, very nearly hitting my clit a couple of times, but still missing. Close. Closer. Not quite. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, buddy, it’s right there.

  Men aren’t mind readers, Darren’s sage advice reminded me.

  I wetted my lips. “A little higher.”

  He responded with a deep moan that vibrated across my flesh. But he didn’t change what he was doing.

  “What you’re doing,” I said. “Do it, a little higher.”

  No change.

  I clawed the bedcovers beside me, hoping he mistook it for a pleasurable response, not the frustrated balling of my fists. Then again, maybe if he realized what I was doing, he’d get a clue.

  Okay, so he doesn’t know what he’s doing with his mouth. Mustering my best “I’m really enjoying this” voice, I said, “I want you to fuck me.”

  “Not yet,” he murmured. “My God, you taste incredible.”

  And you have no idea what you’re doing. “I don’t want to wait,” I said, thankful that my exasperation could easily

  be mistaken for arousal.

  He mercifully came up then. When he kissed me, his mouth was sweet with my own taste. Christ, he may not have been worth a damn going down on me, but I loved the taste of his mouth afterward. He pulled my thigh up and his cock teased the entrance to my pussy. His kiss, his spine-tingling kiss, distracted me almost to the point of oblivion, but reality came back in a hurry as he started to push his cock into me.

  “Condom,” I said.

  He paused, pulling out but not away. “What?”

  I stared at him. “A condom. Not without a condom.”

  “I can’t come with a condom on,” he said, his tone suggesting that this was just common sense.

  “And you’re not coming in me without one.” For all of my insecurities about asking for what I wanted, this was one area in which I was not backing down.

  He scowled, but nodded. For a man who couldn’t come with a condom, he obviously had need for them from time to time, since he had plenty of them in his nightstand.

  And he was right. He couldn’t come with a condom on.

  I guess that made us even.

  Twelve

  The day after my aggravating night with Will, I went to another baseball game with Eric and Darren. Their presence raised my spirits, as it always did, but it just wasn’t enough to completely erase my sour mood.

  During the third inning, it was Eric’s turn to go get beer. As soon as he was gone, Darren said, “You’re not your usual self today. What’s wrong?”

  I shrugged and picked at the nachos the three of us had been sharing.

  He cocked his head. “More work bullshit, or more dick bullshit?”

  I laughed. “A little from column A, a little from column B.”

  “Well, I can’t help much with the work bullshit,” he said. “But what’s up on the dick front?”

  “Just more fun with the sexually challenged,” I muttered.

  “So what happened this time?” He paused. “Or didn’t happen, as the case may be?”

  I gave him a brief rundown of the previous night’s festivities. Just as I finished, Eric reappeared in the stands, carrying our beers.

  Darren squeezed my thigh gently and said, “You have tomorrow off, don’t you?”

  It was a three day weekend for me, thanks to a Monday bank holiday. “Yes, why?”

  He grinned. “You’re staying at my place tonight.”

  I blinked. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to show you how to take the reins

  and get what you want.”

  I swallowed hard. He gave me a devilish grin and a wink.

  I could barely sit still for the rest of the game, particularly after Eric left in the seventh inning to go to work. I had no doubt that Eric knew what was going on between Darren and me, but we didn’t want him to feel like a third wheel when we were all out together, so we kept the come-ons and physical contact to a minimum. When he was gone, however, it was a different story.

  To anyone else, we probably looked like a couple of lovebirds, not best friends who also happened to fuck. To outsiders, it probably looked like romantic affection, but every bit of contact we made was purely sexual. When Darren put his arm around me, it wasn’t a possessive, “this girl is mine” gesture, nor was it protective. For him, it was an opportunity to touch me, to run his fingers up and down the back of my neck or over the edge of my bra strap through my shirt. When he leaned over to kiss me on the cheek, it probably looked cute and cuddly to anyone else, but they didn’t hear the filthy promises he was whispering in my ear as he did.

  On the way, out to the parking garage after the game, he held my hand, but no one could see the little circles he was making on the inside of my wrist with his thumb, the arousing little circles that were distracting me to the point of tripping over my own feet. While we waited in a crowd for the elevator to take us to the floor on which his car was parked, he put his arms around me from behind and held me close. I don’t think anyone but us knew the two purposes that gesture served: To give him a chance to run his thumbs along the undersides of my breasts, and to cover his very obvious hard-on.

  As he unlocked the car, he kissed me, a long, deep kiss, and whispered, “I swear to God, if I had a condom with me right now, I’d fuck you right here in the parking garage.”

  At that, I balked, but I didn’t let him know. Our surreptitious flirtations were one thing; actually fucking in public was a bit much. The lack of a condom made it a moot point, though, so I didn’t mention it.

  Getting out of the parking garage was, as it always

  was after a game, like herding cattle through a pet door. Roll forward a couple of inches. Stop. Roll forward a couple of inches. Stop.

  Darren’s mouth tightened into a scowl. “Christ, there has to be an easier way to do this.” His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. Patience of a saint, except in traffic. “Patience, Darren-san.”

  He tapped his thumbs on the wheel. “Traffic is bad enough when I’m not horny as hell.”

  I feigned shock. “Darren! Are you suggesting that you’ve been thinking impure thoughts?”

  In spite of his frustration, he cracked a smile. Then he laughed and put his hand on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Baby, you don’t know how many times I’
ve fucked you in my mind since that game started.”

  At that, my cheeks burned. “Are you serious?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I swallowed. He was so matter-of-fact about it, so casual about the fact that not only was he horny—which, of course, I knew—but that he’d been quietly thinking about fucking me all day. I wasn’t upset or disconcerted by it in the least, but it was still so surreal to hear him speak so blatantly about his thoughts about me.

  He glanced at me. “You’re not offended by that, are you?”

  “Hardly,” I said. “If I was, I wouldn’t be in your car on my way back to your place for a night of debauchery.”

  “La Casa de Knight, your place for all-night debauchery,” he chuckled.

  And what I wouldn’t give for a night of debauchery with the other Knight brother, too, I thought with a shiver. Darren satisfied me with room to spare, but I couldn’t help my curiosity about Eric. Or my curiosity about both brothers at the same time.

  “Finally!” Darren said, startling me out of my thoughts. We pulled out of the parking garage and onto the congested street, where the car promptly halted amidst throngs of other people trying to go the same direction. Darren rested his forehead on the steering wheel for a

  second. “Oh for God’s sake.”

  I laughed. “We’ll be out of it soon enough.”

  He looked at me, then back at the choked intersection. To the people in front of us, he shouted, “I’ve got a hot woman in my car who needs to be fucked within an inch of her life tonight! Get out of my way!”

  We both howled with laughter. As we continued through the endless maze of cars, I looked at him and said, “You know, I was thinking about this arrangement we have.” I paused, wetting my lips as I tried to find the words. “This ‘friends with benefits’ thing.”