by Vanessa Vale
Dash instantly changed course toward the restrooms and coat closet.
Jackson moved ahead of us, looking around furtively like we were spies in some cloak and dagger movie. I giggled at their ridiculousness. “Where are you guys taking me?”
Jackson gave Dash a nod and the next thing I knew I was swept up in his arms—horrid bridesmaid gown and all—and carried into the hotel’s coat closet. “What the—”
“Shh,” Jackson murmured.
Dash finally set me down and I was pressed between the two of them in the tight quarters. Rows and rows of the wedding guests’ coats filled the space. He grabbed my hand, tugged me behind the last row and into the back corner where we couldn’t be seen, not that there was anyone else around.
“You obviously need to relax,” Jackson said, his hands coming up to massage my shoulders as his lips moved over my neck. His beard rasped my skin and I shivered.
Dash’s grin was wicked as he dropped down to his knees in front of me. “You want toe numbing, baby doll? I’ll give you toe numbing. But you have to stay quiet. Your pleasure’s only for us to see and hear.”
I heard Jackson’s soft chuckle as I gasped in disbelief, when Dash’s hands worked my ugly sea foam dress higher and higher up my thighs. They wouldn’t. They couldn’t—
Dash had it bunched around my hips within seconds.
Oh yes, they could.
Dash’s gaze heated as he took in my thigh high stockings and black lace panties. “Hold that dress up for me,” he said, his dark eyes never leaving my center. “Don’t lower it or you won’t come until we get you home.”
I whimpered at the thought, but when I took hold of the dress for him and his fingers ran over the edge of the stockings to touch that spot of sensitive skin, he growled.
Thank god I’d gotten dressed with the intention of getting laid. This little episode wouldn’t have been nearly as sexy if I’d been wearing Spanx.
But as it was, I was fucking turned on by the sight of him in his black suit on his knees before me, his large, strong hands on my delicate lingerie. In one quick move, he tugged the panties down around my knees, making me moan in anticipation.
Jackson managed to slip the top of my dress to my waist during the shoulder massage and now his hands were cupping my breasts, pinching my nipples just as Dash leaned forward and clamped his mouth over my pussy.
Oh, holy shit! I cried out and then pressed my mouth shut. I was a screamer. They knew that and I was thankful for the quantity of coats and jackets to muffle my sounds.
“Someone from the wedding party could come in at any moment and find us here,” Jackson said, his breath fanning along my neck. The danger of that alone had me close to coming—or it might have been Dash’s tongue and wicked fingers.
My head dropped back on Jackson’s shoulder as Dash lapped at my clit.
“I’m going to come,” I breathed.
“Good girl,” Jackson said as Dash’s free hand gripped my butt and pulled me into him even closer. As Dash had his mouth on my pussy, Jackson had his mouth on mine, swallowing my sounds of pleasure. And when Dash curled a finger deep inside me and pressed against my g-spot, Jackson stifled my scream of release. The scent of my arousal filled the back corner of the coat room. I was sweaty and hot, my breath coming in pants. I felt so good. So sated and relaxed. They could drag me off to do that to me any time they wanted.
When I opened my eyes, Dash was rising to his feet, using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth.
I grinned at him, tugging up the top of my dress. “You were right. That was so much better than wine. I’m totally drunk on your orgasms.”
“Can you feel your toes?” Dash asked.
I shook my head.
He winked. “Then I was doing it right.”
Doing it right? If he did it any more right, I’d be unconscious.
“Mmm,” I said, stretching formerly tense muscles that were now limp and relaxed. And my family problems? What family? “That was just what I needed.”
Jackson dropped a kiss on my shoulder. “Sweetheart, we’ll always give you what you need.”
“But what about you?” I looked them over in their crisp suits and neatly combed hair. Jackson’s beard was tidy and I ached to get my hands on them and muss them up. To get them naked and perhaps suck their cocks. My mouth watered at the possibility.
“Once I sink into you, I’m not going to want to leave. Later.” Jackson shifted his cock in his pants. “Stay at the reception as long as you need. Just know, sweetheart, that as soon as we get you back to our place, we have plans.”
Dash eyed me darkly. “Lots of them.”
12
AVERY
* * *
Two days later, I found myself alone in my childhood bedroom reliving the naughty wedding episode. I was a worldly woman but being eaten out in a public coat closet during my sister’s wedding? That was a first.
But it hadn’t been the last. For the past forty-eight hours, I’d been fucked in more ways than I could count, each more delicious than the last. Maybe Dash and Jackson had been just as unwilling as I was to talk about my upcoming departure because we’d managed to avoid the topic completely.
Right up until this morning when they’d dropped me off at my parents’ house. I’d had a very uncomfortable farewell breakfast with them before they headed to work, but after the incident at the reception and the fact that I’d spent the time since with Jackson and Dash, it was to be expected. After they left, I went to my childhood bedroom to pack. I left the ugly bridesmaid dress hanging on the back of my door. I didn’t need that in Brazil. Or anywhere. Although, I would never look at sea foam green satin the same way again.
Jackson and Dash had offered to come over and keep me company while I packed, but I’d turned them down. Leaving would be hard enough, thanks to them. Lingering over it would kill me.
I refused to cry over the fact that I was leaving Bridgewater. It was who I was. This was what I did. Leave.
And my guys understood that. They hadn’t pressured me to give them a date when I’d return. They’d just given me a long night of multiple orgasms and dropped me off without making a scene.
We’ll always give you what you need.
Jackson had been so right. They’d given me the release I’d needed at the wedding, and since that night they’d given me the mindless lovemaking that I’d needed to end this trip on a high note. And a wonderfully sore pussy—and ass.
And in return, they didn’t make any demands—besides getting on my knees before them to suck them off or to bend over the bed to take another plug—or push me to make a commitment I wasn’t ready for. They were almost too good to be true.
But all that had been about sex. Yeah, they had huge cocks and knew how to use them. To say they’d ruined me for all other men was probably true. But their ruining me wasn’t because of sex alone. No, they were just great guys. Nice. Funny. Smart. So much more. The list of adjectives was endless. The way they were with Jackson’s family showed me they respected each other. They didn’t use or taunt or bicker just to make others miserable. They’d shown me my parents were not the norm. Hell, they were so damned abnormal.
I was going to miss everything about Dash and Jackson. God, I was going to miss fucking those guys. And cuddling with them. And making them laugh. And being pampered by them. Hearing the stories of their patients, whether it be an albino horse or a ferret. I hadn’t even left and my chest ached. I hurt right around my heart.
I sighed as I tossed another t-shirt into the bag. Okay, it was time to face it. I was going to miss them, period.
But I’d come back. I just hadn’t been able to tell them when. They hadn’t asked for any sort of commitment. It was a conversation we could have another day…like the next time I was back in Bridgewater.
My flight left in a few hours for Atlanta and then on to Rio. Once there, I’d be off the grid as I researched the indigenous people in the Amazon. I hadn’t bothered to buy a return flig
ht since there was no telling how long my gig would last.
Travel accommodations tended to be unreliable in the Amazon.
I thought back to the way I’d woken up this morning, cuddled between the two of them, feeling safer and more adored than I’d ever thought possible.
A girl could get used to that. I wanted that. With them.
So yeah, I knew I wanted it, but for how long? Was I really ready to say I wanted forever with them? What would that even mean? Living with them between assignments and calling from the road? Somehow, I couldn’t see that working in the long run. Could Dash and Jackson really be happy with me flitting off to a different continent every other week? They said they’d deal with it, but I wouldn’t want to trap them in a situation where they were miserable. They deserved a woman who could be there for them. They deserved a woman in their bed every night. Someone who doted on them as much as they did her.
They were Bridgewater men, they didn’t do casual. They were intense and so damn certain about their feelings. About me. Us.
They deserved the same from the woman they ended up with.
I zipped my bag and tried not to dwell on the uncomfortable hollow feeling that settled in my gut. I was running away.
No. I was doing my job.
I was running away because it was just a job.
My cell phone rang, interrupting the internal battle that had been making me crazy all morning. Aunt Louise, probably calling to say goodbye. Now she could be counted on to give me the guilt trip that Dash and Jackson had not.
“Hi, Aunt Louise,” I said.
“Oh, Avery honey, I’m glad I caught you in time.” Her voice sounded strained and I stopped packing my belongings.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
“Fine, fine,” she said, but she sounded distracted. Then she made a hissing sound and the phone grew muffled. “Oh, it’s my chest,” I heard her say. “It feels tight. I think…it might be…my heart.”
Panic set in. My own heart leapt into my throat as I ran out of my room and down the hall. “Oh my God, should I call 9-1-1?”
Her voice was frighteningly faint. “Just tell Bev. She knows what to do.”
Beverly. Jackson’s mom? Of course, she was Louise’s best friend. Adrenaline kicked in and fear sent me into motion. “Are you at home?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Stay right there, Aunt Louise. I’m coming.”
I didn’t have Beverly’s number so I texted Jackson with fumbling fingers as I hurried out to my rental car. I told him to tell his mom about Aunt Louise. He texted back instantly that he was on it.
On the way to her place, my mind went to a dark place. What if she was having a heart attack? As my mind raced, I turned on the car’s Bluetooth and called my parents and my sister. No one picked up—they were most likely at work—so I left voicemails. I was still wondering if I should have called the paramedics when I pulled into Aunt Louise’s driveway.
The door was unlocked and I rushed in to find her sitting on her sofa sipping a cup of tea and looking altogether far too happy. And healthy.
“Aunt Louise, are you okay?” I asked through panting breaths.
“I’m fine, dear.” She didn’t have the sick pallor of someone having a heart attack. She wasn’t sweating or breathing hard. Her lips weren’t blue or pressed together in pain.
I stared at her for a moment as my heart rate returned to a normal pace. It seemed I might be the one with heart problems. “What was that on the phone? I thought you were having a heart attack!”
She patted the sofa beside her and I sat down heavily, unzipping my coat and tugging off my hat. “Must have just been heartburn from the spicy BBQ leftovers. I shouldn’t have eaten them for breakfast. Sorry to worry you.”
But she wasn’t sorry, not at all. I recognized that glimmer in her eye, it was the same one I’d seen at the holiday party when she and her friends were scheming to get me and the guys to admit we were together.
No, she wouldn’t have…
Sure enough, there was a knock at the door. There, on the doorstep, were my own personal knights in shining armor. They slammed the door closed behind them and rushed to us. Dash wore his white vet’s coat and Jackson had his nametag pinned to his shirt. It was obvious they’d run out of the animal hospital to get to Aunt Louise.
Shit, they looked good when they were being heroic. Dash knelt in front of Aunt Louise and took hold of her wrist to check her pulse as Jackson grabbed me by the arms. “What can we do to help?”
“Let me guess,” I said to them. “Your mother sent you guys over here?”
They looked at me, then gave Aunt Louise an assessing gaze. Dash winced after he let go of her wrist. Jackson groaned. “No chest pains?”
I added my glare to theirs but Aunt Louise only offered a brilliant, too-innocent smile in return.
“Seriously, Aunt Louise? Did you and Beverly really think you could make me stay by having you fake a medical emergency?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t fake anything.” Patting her chest, she said, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d better go take some antacid for this heartburn.”
She might have managed to fool someone with that little act if she hadn’t stopped on her way out to whisper to Jackson, “This is the second time we’ve stepped in to help. I expect you boys can take it from here.”
He dropped his head into his hands as she left the room. “I can’t believe we fell for this.”
“Seriously,” Dash said, settling onto the couch that Aunt Louise just vacated. “But then, I hadn’t expected your mom and her friends to take it to this extreme. What were they trying to prove, anyway?”
I was just as irritated as they were, if not more. I’d probably aged ten years in the car ride to my aunt’s. But I knew exactly what they were trying to prove.
Aunt Louise and her friends wanted me to see that Dash and Jackson would always be there for me. That they would come running whenever I needed them, just as I had for Aunt Louise. That this wasn’t about sex. This was about so much more. My throat tightened at the thought of that kind of loyalty—at the kind of commitment it demanded in return.
I hadn’t thought when Aunt Louise had called. I cared for her, worried after her and broke every law on my way, forgetting about everything else but her.
“We’re sorry,” Jackson said, coming to sit on the other side of me and pull me into him, his arm around my shoulder.
“Why are you sorry?” I asked, leaning into the touch. He felt so good. Big and strong. God, they smelled good.
I knew then if there really had been something wrong with Aunt Louise he’d be there for me. Helping me through it. Dash, too.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He shook his head. “We promised that no one would push you into staying. I don’t know what they were thinking, but when I—”
I cut him off with a quick kiss. I surprised myself by it, but it was right. And it felt so good. I knew exactly what they’d been trying to prove, but it was what I’d already known. Aunt Louise and Mrs. Wray and the rest of them didn’t need to open my eyes to how wonderful these men were.
I already knew.
If anything, their little lesson had the opposite effect, because in that moment all I could think was…I didn’t deserve this kind of loyalty. I was one foot out the door already with no promise of when I’d be back, but they’d still come running when they’d heard I might need them.
They deserved someone who knew how to give them the same kind of devotion in return.
And that wasn’t me. I wouldn’t even know how. Right now, all I could think about was running away from all the high expectations. Between Dash and Jackson, his mom, my aunt and their friends, I could feel a weight settling over me trying to pin me down. Wanting me to be a bigger, better person than I was. They wanted me to be like them, but I’d only let them down.
It might not be today, but it would happen. And I owed it to them to end it now.
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With a forced smile, I shrugged out of his hold and stood. “That kiss. It was goodbye. You, um…deserve, well, everything.” My throat was tight and it hurt. “Sorry to run, you guys. I have a plane to catch. But I’ll see you soon, right?”
Before they could respond, I fled.
I was out of there, back in my car. Running away again. One quick stop at the house to pick up my luggage and then I was free.
But for the first time in my life, leaving Bridgewater didn’t feel like freedom. Instead of feeling my world expand, it felt like the walls were closing in. That a door to something special was closing and it was all my fault.
Three hours later, I boarded my plane in Bozeman and told myself that by the time I got to Rio, I’d be back to normal. Once I was out of Montana, I’d be able to see clearly again. I’d be my usual self.
Just like my tan lines, this heartache would fade. It had to.
13
JACKSON
* * *
We let her go. I still couldn’t believe we’d just let her fucking go. Dash and I hadn’t been able to focus on anything other than the fact that we’d just watched the love of our life walk away from us. And left us sitting on her aunt’s couch.
Since we ran out of the office and told Chris at the front desk to reschedule the rest of the day’s appointments, we ended up at the diner. Lost.
It had been packed when we arrived, but now only a few tables were left filled and the owner, Jessie, was cleaning up from the afternoon rush. We had nowhere to go so Dash and I dawdled over slices of pie. As if a sugar high was enough to help this awful empty feeling inside.
“We should have gone to the Barking Dog instead,” Dash said. He slouched in the booth across from me and picked at the apple pie. “This is good and all, but whiskey would be better. A fuck-ton of it.”
I gave a halfhearted laugh that turned into a sigh. Then I said what I’d been thinking ever since Avery all but ran out her aunt’s front door. “We shouldn’t have let her go.”
