Carnal Compromise

by Robin L. Rotham

  “No,” AJ admitted with a sigh. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  Brent looked away. “I don’t want to be.”

  AJ’s heart twisted. She knew too well how that felt. “I didn’t do a very good job of keeping Joe distracted, did I?”

  And that was precisely what she was doing here, she realized, having sex with these two gorgeous men who otherwise wouldn’t have given her a second glance. Brent had wanted her as a buffer to keep them from taking that next, irrevocable step. Considering what she’d just witnessed—oral sex that was hotter and more intense than anything she’d ever read, or even imagined, and an exit that was so callous it actually took her breath away—he’d had the right idea. No wonder he’d kept Joe at arm’s length for so long.

  “This wasn’t anything you could stop,” he assured her. “It’s been brewing for years.”

  “Why don’t you want to love him?” she asked. Then she stuck out her tongue. “Well, that’s a stupid question. After the stunt he just pulled, I wouldn’t want to love him either. But you guys just seem so perfect for each other. Sometimes it’s almost as if you read each other’s minds.”

  “He’s not looking for love,” Brent said evenly. “I think it scares him more than it scares me, which is saying something.”

  “Why does it scare you?”

  “What does AJ stand for?” he countered.

  She scowled at him. “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

  “Tell me.” He kissed her cheek and then her ear, and her heart skipped a beat.

  “I don’t want to. It’s a stupid name that doesn’t fit me at all.”

  “I won’t tell anyone. Come on, if I’m going to spill my guts to a woman, I want to at least know her name.”

  She stared at him through slitted eyes for a moment and then sighed. “Ariel Jane.”

  He stared back for another moment and then a slow smile curved his lips. “Actually, sweetheart, you look exactly like an Ariel Jane.”

  She smacked him on the arm. “Shut up.”

  “I’m serious! Look at you—that sweet little cap of blonde curls, that pixie face, that girlish body…”

  “Boyish, you mean.”

  He raised his brow again. “Honey, if more boys looked like you, I’d have gone to bat for the other team in middle school.”

  Heat washed up into her face, and AJ was tempted to argue with him but she didn’t want to seem as if she were fishing for compliments. If he was attracted to men, which he obviously was given what had just happened between him and Joe, then it stood to reason he would be attracted to her.

  But they weren’t supposed to be worrying about her right now. Joe had just come and gone, literally, without paying the slightest bit of attention to Brent’s needs.

  She tiptoed her fingers down his chest to his belly, and he leaned back to give her more room. “I think you deserve a little TLC.”

  He tucked his hands behind his head and watched her with eyes gone sleepy with desire. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Whatever you want.”

  “Anything that doesn’t involve me opening my mouth too far.” He rubbed his jaw. “How do you girls do that all the time? I was afraid my jaw was gonna come unhinged and get stuck that way.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say I do it all the time,” she said dryly, “but as I recall, you get used to it or pick up ways to change things up so you’re not locked in one position for so long.”

  “As you recall…?” he prompted.

  She shrugged. “It’s been a few years.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Although she’d opened the door with her casual confession, Brent’s open curiosity about her long abstinence caught AJ off guard. In her experience, men didn’t care why when it came to personal matters. The situation simply was what it was.

  And really, he had to ask? Maybe he and Joe had taken notice of her few feminine attributes in the privacy of their camper, but in the eyes of the world, she was a farmer. She had the wiry build and chapped, callused hands of a man who worked on machinery every day, and her wardrobe looked exactly like Brent’s and Joe’s. Most of her time was spent with other farmers, talking shop not sex. Why wouldn’t it have been years since she got laid or blew a guy? Hell, it was a miracle she’d ever gotten laid at all, much less been married.

  “AJ?”

  She blinked, realizing she’d been staring at him. “What?”

  “Why has it been a few years since you gave head? Don’t you like it?”

  “I like it just fine,” she said defensively—although toward the end of her marriage she’d almost hated it. But that was because she’d gone down on Rob every night more as a penance for her inadequacy than a demonstration of her love. Oral sex with Brent promised to be free of such weighty emotional subtext. It would simply be an act of fun and affection and pure, unadulterated lust.

  Brent grinned. “What a coincidence. I like getting it.”

  Rolling her eyes, she smiled back at him. “Big surprise.”

  “I’ve fantasized about fucking your mouth, you know,” he told her with an intense look.

  Her heart skipped a few more beats and she couldn’t hold back a shy smile. “Really?”

  “Mmm-hmm. In the shower usually. As you know, masturbating is a great way to unwind.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks again. “Jerk,” she complained, yanking at a few strands of his chest hair until he hissed in pain.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

  “Try harder next time.” Then she ran her fingers over his chest to soothe the hurt she’d inflicted. “So did you ever fantasize about what just happened?”

  His expression darkened. “You mean going down on Joe? Hell no. Not until tonight, anyway.” His lips curved and his brown eyes twinkled. “Wanna shower with me, AJ?”

  “Now exactly how is this going to work?” she asked, eyeing the shower stall skeptically.

  If Brent hadn’t been a little stuck on Ariel Jane Pender before, he was now. He’d been ridiculously wounded when Joe walked out, and if she hadn’t jumped into the strange vacuum left behind, he’d probably be trying not to cry in his pillow right now. Or out getting drunk and then having a knock-down-drag-out with Joe on the driveway. He was enjoying this infinitely more than he would have either of those options. But bitter awareness bubbled just below the surface. Tonight’s wounds were just a small sample of the pain he’d feel when Joe finally gave him a proper fucking and then walked away for good.

  The idea that he felt an emotional tug toward both Joe and AJ was troubling. AJ had fulfilled her part of their bargain earlier and then gotten so distracted she hadn’t asked for his explanation of why he was afraid of love—which was a relief since he’d suddenly realized it might not be love he was afraid of so much as himself. He’d always been determined not to wind up like his father, devoted to a woman for whom one man’s love would never be enough and utterly lost without her. It was humbling to realize that he could just as easily wind up like his mother, unable to settle for just one lover.

  Was it selfish and naïve to think he could have two lovers without one of them—or all of them—getting hurt? Was it even possible for three people to have a mutually satisfying relationship?

  Resolutely setting aside his worries, he slid his arms around AJ’s waist.

  “Well,” he explained, snuggling against her backside and resting his chin on her shoulder, “we squeeze in here together and get all nice and wet. Then I soap you up so you slide down my body like an eel and I fuck your pretty little face just like I dreamed.”

  She turned her head to study him, her expression was torn between amusement and self-consciousness. Why in the hell was it so hard for her to believe he found her attractive?

  Brent cupped her jaw and pulled her face to his. “Kiss me, Ariel.”

  Without giving her time to respond, he laid one on her and she turned in his arms to kiss him back with artless passion.
r />   When he pulled away, she thumped his chest once with her fists. “You shouldn’t call me that.”

  “Why not? There’s nobody else to hear me, and it’s beautiful, just like you.”

  She grimaced. “I’m not beautiful. And who ever heard of a farmer named Ariel anyway? Even my dad called me AJ.”

  Brent’s still-aching jaw tightened. Someone had really done a number on her to make her think she was anything less than gorgeous and feminine, and it was time he did something about it.

  “Forget the shower,” he said firmly, dragging her back to the bed.

  She squeaked when he picked her up by the waist and dumped her backward onto the mattress. “But—”

  “I want you.”

  “I want you, too,” she said in a small voice as he climbed up between her legs, rubbing against her body every inch of the way. Her skin felt like warm silk against his, and he groaned as he settled over her.

  “Sweetheart, you feel so good.” Resting on his elbow with his arm under her shoulders, he kissed her parted lips while his other hand slid down her side to her hip.

  Brent was glad she didn’t demand fast and hard this time because he wasn’t in the mood to oblige her. He tongued her open mouth in leisurely exploration, turning his head this way and that until she grabbed two handfuls of his hair and held him still so she could do some exploring of her own. She might doubt her own desirability but she didn’t hesitate to take what she wanted, and she definitely wanted him.

  She writhed gently, plumbing his mouth just as thoroughly as he did hers, and he loved the sinuous stirring of muscle and bone under her skin. Ariel Jane Pender worked every bit as hard as he and Joe did, and it was exciting as hell to find out she could play just as hard—when she let herself.

  AJ spread her thighs so that he was cradled in between and thrust her hips against him in an urgent plea. Breaking off the kiss, he cupped her breasts with his hands and slid his mouth down her throat.

  “Brent, please!”

  He ignored her cry and bent his head to one beautifully firm little mound. When he licked and sucked lightly at her tight nipple, she panted, twisting her hands in his hair until he could barely hold back a cry of his own. Her responsiveness set his whole body on fire. He shifted until his belly was flush against her slick cunt and played with her breasts in earnest, squeezing and pinching, sucking and biting, and to his amazement, she came again. Her hips heaved him up off the bed as her stomach curled in a dozen or more hard contractions.

  Brent nearly came himself—he’d been living with this hard-on for so long, it felt as if someone were twisting his balls with vise grips.

  “You’ve got some sensitive little tits, sweet pea,” he said roughly when she settled back into the mattress, still squeezing her breasts but carefully avoiding her nipples.

  “That’s never happened before,” she admitted. “Maybe God’s trying to make up for shorting me on cup size.”

  He narrowed his eyes but let it slide for the moment—though he did note that even though she’d never come from simple breast stimulation before, she’d still managed not to make much noise. “That was a little different from the one you had with Joe,” he said as casually as possible.

  AJ stroked his hair with both hands but didn’t answer.

  “You said you don’t come like that all the time?”

  She shook her head. “Only when I’m alone.” Then she seemed to realize what she’d admitted and blushed. “Wow, that just came right out, didn’t it? Sorry, I can’t seem to self-censor around you to save my life today.”

  “You’re apologizing…why?” he asked with a grin as he put his hands on her hipbones and scooted lower between her legs.

  AJ squirmed in his hold. “What are you doing?”

  “If I have to explain it to you, darlin’, you must not have been reading those Amanda Garrity books close enough.” Like Joe’s pubic hair, her neatly trimmed blonde curls were matted with her fluids, and he ran his thumbs over them a couple of times before spreading her pussy lips wide. “I know damn good and well guys go down on girls in them.”

  “But it’s your turn!” she said breathlessly, curling her shoulders off the bed and tugging on his hair when he touched the tip of his tongue to her clit.

  He pulled back. “Right. My turn to go down on you.”

  “No, your turn to come!” When he just grinned at her, she flopped back down with a resigned sigh. “Fine. But if you’re going to do it, do it right.”

  He blinked. “Well, now there’s a challenge if I ever heard one. Just out of curiosity, what’s your idea of right?”

  “Don’t tease me.”

  “Define teasing.”

  Squirming a little, she said, “You know, lots of, um…little touches that promise something but never satisfy.”

  Well, now he knew something else about her—she’d never had oral sex from a man who knew what he was doing.

  “Isn’t teasing part of the buildup?” he teased.

  She propped up on one elbow. “Look, it’s called eating for a reason. You don’t play with your food, do you? I know you don’t. You just get down to business and eat it.”

  He snapped a salute at her. “Yes ma’am.”

  “That wasn’t an— Oh God yes, like that!”

  He’d never laughed before when he was going down on a woman, but he laughed with Ariel Jane Pender as he got down to the serious business of eating her. Who’d have thought there was such a fiery, demanding sex goddess under those flannel shirts and Wranglers?

  But she wasn’t the only one who knew what she wanted from sex, and while he didn’t exactly tease her, he managed to keep her on the edge for a lot longer than she was happy with, using sharp nips, aggressive suction and long, hard strokes of his tongue. He brought her close to orgasm three or four times, and finally she clamped her thighs around his head and twisted both hands in his hair to hold him in place.

  “Quit teasing me or I’ll shave off one of your eyebrows when you’re asleep,” she groaned.

  He smiled and brought her up one last time. When he felt her start to tremble and relax her body like she’d done with Joe, he stopped again.

  Pay dirt. She screamed with frustration—literally screamed at the top of her lungs while she tried to yank half the hair off his head.

  Frenzied at finally having decimated her self-control, he launched himself up her body and rammed his aching cock into her with enough brutality to satisfy even the most jaded masochist. She screamed again and grabbed his ass as she arched off the bed, her cunt wringing his cock tighter than any fist.

  Christ, it had been decades since he’d fucked a woman without a rubber between them—the sensation was incredible. He plunged in and out, growling with pleasure. There was nothing sweeter than fucking through a woman’s orgasm—except maybe fucking her wet, swollen cunt afterward while she lay in a state of boneless satisfaction. Brent paused long enough to hook her unresisting legs over his braced arms and then abandoned himself to his own animalistic quest for release, never taking his eyes off her face.

  She watched him back through pale lashes, her lips slightly parted and her arms resting palms up beside her tousled head. Finally, when his breathing had turned to panting and sweat dripped off his brow, when his rhythm had grown ragged and his balls had drawn up tight, she touched his lower lip with her fingers.

  “Come for me, Brent.”

  He lost it, shouting hoarsely as he emptied everything he had into her.

  Alone in the bunkroom, Joe lay in the dark with one hand on his dick and his other arm thrown over his eyes. The muted shouts of fulfillment drifted through the open door and he knew Brent had finally come.

  He swallowed hard, yanking roughly at his erection until his come spurted onto his stomach. The tears that dampened his arm were the result of yet another long-overdue release.

  Or at least that’s what he told himself.

  Chapter Six

  The sound of the camper door slamming st
artled Brent out of a sound sleep at the time they usually left for work, and he didn’t have even a few seconds to enjoy the bundle of warm, fragrant woman flesh in his arms before anxiety dropped like a lead weight into the pit of his stomach. AJ turned her head to look at him, wearing a frown that said she felt much the same, and they tossed back the covers without a word. While she rinsed off in the shower, Brent threw together three sack lunches, knowing Joe was so used to AJ taking care of it that he probably hadn’t bothered.

  At the front door, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard, feeling that something important needed to be said but he couldn’t quite put it into words. Not surprisingly, she nodded when they pulled apart as if she’d received whatever message he’d sent.

  And she thought he and Joe could read each other’s minds.

  They caught up with their erstwhile lover halfway to town and pulled over just ahead of him. He climbed in next to AJ without comment, and to Brent’s disbelief, he actually walked into the diner whistling. Whistling. He joked with the other guys, talked about work and demolished a plate of steak and eggs as if he hadn’t eaten in a week—none of which was strange in itself since he’d gotten both laid and blown last night, they had plenty of work to do today and none of them had eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. But he was acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened between them last night when they all knew something damn well had.

  Sitting across the booth from him, Brent picked at his own food and exchanged WTF looks with AJ while he watched Joe dig into his pancakes.

  When Joe finally pushed his plate away and looked as if he was about to stand up, Brent said, “We need to talk about last night.”

  “Why?” Joe said bluntly, getting to his feet. “We all got what we came for.”

  Brent glared. “No thanks to you.”

  “Excuse me, but wasn’t that you I heard shouting last night after I went to bed?”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  Joe gave him a hard look. “You’re the one that started this, boss man.” He lowered his volume anyway, putting a hand on the bench behind him and leaning down next to his ear. “If you have a problem with the way things played out last night, we can discuss it later. Right now we’ve got work to do if we want to finish up here tonight and move on to Elton in the morning. If the three of us having sex is going to interfere with getting the job done, maybe we’d better call it quits right now.”