Burned

by Meg Watson

  She smiled for real, her cheeks going pink underneath her glittery blush.

  Well geez, if Lyle got her the outfit, did Owen set her up on a date? How potent is that Google Fu anyway?

  Holy cow, they really are the perfect men.

  “Melita, he is 100% doll face. And still he's probably less than you deserve.”

  I caught her hand and clasped it in midair, wanting more than anything to jump up and down like a middle school girl at a slumber party. She was back. I couldn't believe it. There were about four million things I needed to talk to her about.

  Her eyes floated around the room.

  “You really set up something great here, girl,” she sighed approvingly. “I can’t believe you did it without me.”

  “I can barely believe I did it without you either,” I admitted. “But don’t worry, I totally docked your pay.”

  Her eyes glittered. “You mean —”

  “I mean you better show up for work on Monday,” I interrupted her with a saucy grin.

  CHAPTER 9

  Melita hung close to my hip in the largest gallery, and I gave her a quick rundown of everything that was in the show. I felt like I needed to confess that I had bought some $8000 in forgeries from eBay and Asian merchants… On purpose. By the end of it, I felt about five pounds lighter.

  “Boy, it really does feel good to get that off my chest!”

  She shrugged. Apparently her new outfit had put her in a pretty good mood. But I didn't even think she was really listening to me, just making cow eyes at Doug who kept a safe and respectful distance the entire time.

  “You're grossing me out,” I finally told her, holding my champagne glass to my lips so no one else could hear what I was saying.

  “I have no idea what you're talking about,” she simpered.

  “The Scarlet O'Hara impersonation that you're doing, is what I'm talking about. Why don’t you just go over there and stand next to him. Oh wait, I have an idea… Why don't you go over there and drop your tits —”

  “Oh my god, how can you even say such a thing to me!”

  I open my eyes extra wide and just stared at her. Finally she flared her nostrils and looked away.

  “Yeah, okay. You've got a point.”

  Later in the evening, I noticed people looking over my shoulder and wondered if the Jacks were behind me again. But their expressions didn't really seem to match up with what I would have imagined. They looked surprised, slightly amused. Maybe a little startled.

  I perked up my ears to listen and just waited.

  “Was going on here?” Melita muttered. “What's the — oh my gosh —”

  I didn't even turn around. I watched the surprise ripple from person to person as they glanced at the paintings and then glanced back over my shoulder.

  “Oh, girl…”

  “Brienne," came a voice, uncertain and definitely displeased.

  “Brienne?” came another.

  The guests milled around us, becoming more open in their curiosity as the moments passed. Finally I put my hand on my hip and turned around slowly.

  “Carl… Whitney… So nice of you both to come.”

  Carl's face was red all the way up and through his hairline. I had no idea it could go that far.

  “Brienne, what is this?”

  I gestured with my hand at the walls. “What's this? This is my gallery. Thank you so much for coming to my show.”

  I felt Melita flutter a hand to her lips and heard her start gnawing on her thumbnail.

  “Brienne,” Whitney snarled, “Carl is maybe too nice to say this to you, but I think that this is totally out of line, and I think you know it.”

  “Out of line?” I repeated vaguely. I turned around in a slow circle, luxuriously taking in the room inch by inch. The Jasper Johns next to the fake Jasper Johns, the ivory tusk next to the fake ivory tusk, and the giant, authentic Gerhard Richter next to the China-reproduced image of Carl and Whitney toasting novelty margarita glasses in the shape of beagle heads.

  “I think it's a really nice picture of you two, actually,” I said lightly. “I was considering giving it to you as a wedding present. Is there problem?”

  “I think you know there's a problem here, Brienne!” Carl sputtered. “You got a picture of me and my fiancé under the word fraud. It says fraud, right there over our heads!”

  I turned around as though I had no idea that everything was lined up that way.

  “Oh, I see what you mean… Yes, that does almost seem like a purposeful thing there, doesn't it? But I assure you, it was just a matter of convenience. My cellphone mysteriously stopped working a few weeks ago, and so I was unable to acquire new pictures.”

  “Oh, this is ridiculous!” Whitney sneered. She shook her head, the heavy diamond earrings bouncing against her cotton candy hairdo.

  “I completely agree,” I said.

  It's amazing, the subtle ways that you can fuck with people.

  “You know what, Bree, you're not to get away with this. Whitney is a very important person, and she's just not going to stand by and let you humiliate us —”

  “— humiliate you? Are you saying you feel humiliated?”

  His lips popped open over and over again but no sound came out.

  “Because that's a terrible way to feel, Carl, don't you think? It would be terrible to feel like the people who were closest to you would just hang you out to dry, now wouldn’t it?”

  I looked at the two of them and kept my expression carefully neutral. I wasn't mad. In fact, I didn't even really want to make a scene, though I could hear the murmur of people around me and knew most of the people here were now enjoying the scene quite a bit.

  Finally I just shrugged. “Well, the show will be coming down in just a few weeks. I have a new show to put on… Nothing this complicated, just a collection of Japanese screens and ceremonial dress. Nothing you'd be interested in, anyway. In fact, I know this isn’t really your thing. I probably would never see you here again, right?”

  Whitney ground her molars together. “We're neighbors,” she snarled through her teeth.

  “Exactly,” I said in a voice so quiet that they both tipped their heads toward me to hear me. “We're neighbors, and so we should probably keep this as civil and professional as possible. I would guess that probably only fifty or a hundred people have recognized you so far. The painting is a little bit blurry. If you leave now… Especially if you leave separately… I’ll bet no one else will figure it out.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest and blinked at them and waited for them to make a decision. Carl shifted from foot to foot and looked all around the room, ping-ponging over every set of eyes that seemed to register that he looked an awful lot like the guy in the painting right behind me.

  Finally with a frustrated snort, he just dropped Whitney's arm hard against her leg and stormed off, back toward the entrance. She stood there for a few more seconds and shook her head at me but couldn't seem to find any more words to say. After about ten more seconds she turned and left the way Carl had gone.

  Melita appeared at my elbow.

  “You know,” Melita said in a sweet whisper, “I really thought that you were just going to let it go. I really thought that you were just above it and moving on with your life without even a look in the rearview mirror. But girl —” she said, staring up at me with her big kohl-black eyes, “you always surprise me. That. Was. Brilliant.”

  “Was it?” I said vaguely. Too many feelings were competing in my head at once. I figured I was just going to have to wait for a while before I knew for sure if I was embarrassed that I had tricked them into publicly humiliating themselves or absolutely fucking astonished at how absolutely fucking awesome I am.

  It was sort of a toss-up.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Oh look, you found Melita,” Lyle said from behind me. I could feel the heat from his chest against my shoulder blades and I longed to fall back into him. It had been an extremely long day. In fact,
it had been an extremely long several years. All I wanted to do was fall into the arms of the men that I…

  Well. These men. That’s where I wanted to fall.

  “Actually, Melita found me,” I said with a weary and satisfied sigh. “And doesn't she look lovely?”

  “Of course she looks lovely. Nothing to it. But she doesn't look anything like this,” he said, dropping his lips to the space between my shoulder and neck, where Owen usually planted his most tender kisses. “This is the only beauty I can think about.”

  “I think you're in my spot,” Owen growled from my other side. His head dropped to the seam of my neck and shoulder on my opposite side and for a moment they were both lovingly, tenderly gnawing symmetrical kisses.

  “I'm perfectly willing to find another spot,” Lyle growled as his hands slipped over the swell of my hips. “But I think everyone's watching us.”

  “Doesn't bother me one bit,” Owen replied as his fingers traced the very bottom edge of my breast. My body stiffened and arched automatically.

  “What I would like to do to you boys, I really don't want to do in public. Follow me,” I said regally. I took each of their elbows and led them toward the back, feeling every eye in the gallery turning toward us as we passed.

  Yes, that's right, I'm taking my lovers upstairs where I'm going to do unspeakable things to them, and hopefully they're going to do even worse to me.

  I caught Melita’s eye just before we crossed into the warehouse, and she shuffled over just as quick as her mermaid skirt would let her.

  “Please ask the floor manager to close up the gallery in about 45 minutes,” I said, noting that my voice was already husky with desire. Melita blinked twice.

  “Anything you say, boss,” she sing-songed. Even as the last notes of her sendoff hit the air, I felt Lyle and Owen guiding me through the warehouse door.

  We barely made it to the elevator with our clothes still on. Owen's fingers found the zipper under my arm and snaked it down toward my hip. I was already half out of it before the elevator doors slid open again at my condo. All three of us tumbled out together, hands grasping and searching, exploring and pulling each other as close as we could get.

  I was starving for them. I couldn't get enough of kissing one before I needed to kiss the other and they pressed so close to me, each taking a turn to nuzzle and gnaw at my neck while I was kissing the other. I felt their hands wandering over every inch of my body. Before I knew it I was completely naked except for my strappy stiletto heels. I reached down to open the buckle.

  “Leave it on,” Lyle commanded me, sending a shiver through my inner thighs.

  “Get her to the bed,” Owen said to Lyle. Working in utter harmony, I found myself lifted off my feet and transported across the walnut floors to the extra-large king size bed that Lyle had made just for us. I settled back on the the thick buttery satin of the Egyptian sheets and willed myself to keep my eyes open. Everything about this day had worked so perfectly that I didn't want to miss a moment of it.

  “Let me watch you,” I said in a clear voice. Owen picked his head up from the side of my knee and gave me a questioning look. Lyle removed his head from the divot between my hip and rib cage gave me another look. I placed my fingertips on their shoulders and pushed them each back gently.

  “You’re still wearing clothes,” I explained. “I want to watch you get naked. Take them off.”

  Lyle shot Owen a look but obediently back-crawled up the bed to stand the floor. He waited for Owen to join him, then they each began disrobing the rest of the way.

  Though they both had a distinct style that I was starting to understand, they still synced up as though this had been choreographed and rehearsed in advance. As their trousers and jockey shorts dropped to the floor their thickened cocks both bounced free and pointed directly at me. I sucked in a swift hitch of breath, gazing hungrily at their long, muscular bodies and the easy, graceful way they stood together.

  What could I say? Was there any way to let them know how utterly perfect this all felt? How absolutely ready I was to be overwhelmed and give myself completely to them again, and again, and again?

  I just flung up my arms and smiled, and I could tell that they knew. Sliding up smoothly beside me, Lyle to my front and Owen to my back, they fit on either side like puzzle pieces. In moments we were all rocking together, arms flung over arms, legs pinned between legs, my wet juices sliding against Owen’s thigh and then Lyle's thigh and then Owen’s thigh once again.

  My hands drifted over Lyle's firm, muscular chest as he kissed me deeply, his tongue spearing toward my palate, his hands pushing my arms apart so that Owen could pull them back from behind me.

  I flung my thigh backward over Owen’s hip. I wanted him to enter me first. I hadn't been able to keep track so that they could really take turns, but I knew I wanted him in me, and fast.

  “Tell me you want me,” Owen growled in my ear, his hands tangled in my hair and pulling my head back.

  “I want you to take me,” I moaned, breaking away from Lyle's kiss just long enough to catch my breath.

  I felt Owen gnawing against my shoulder blade and then his hand drifting down to line himself up. The wide head of his cock pressed against my tight, puckered opening. I sucked my breath in through my teeth and consciously commanded my body to relax.

  “Shhhh,” Lyle said, encouraging me. “Just let him in, baby,” he murmured sweetly, stroking my cheek and kissing my eyelids. I nodded and relaxed my ass and thighs as Owen guided himself into me.

  There was that burning, stretching feeling and then I was filled with him. He began stroking slowly, dropping warm globs of lube along his shaft as he worked his way deeper and deeper into me. I opened my eyes and found Lyle staring at me, his mouth hanging open in a happy smile, his eyes heavy-lidded.

  “Now you,” I whispered. “I need you inside me too.”

  Lyle caught his lower lip between his teeth and reached down with his fingers to play with my wet, slick clit for a few moments. As Owen thrust deeply inside me, Lyle circled my clit with his fingers. I moaned deep in my chest and began to wiggle my hips.

  “Lyle, I need you,” I said and urgent whisper. “I don't want to come before you are inside me!”

  “Baby, I can make you come all night,” he assured me, but he moved to guide himself with his hand toward my pussy. I saw him glance over my shoulder at Owen and their eyes met as though silently figuring out how to sync up.

  He pressed his thick head against my opening and paused, waiting for Owen’s stroke to let out. Then when Owen was almost completely out Lyle began to thrust into me.

  I gasped. Lyle's hand hooked behind my knee and slid down to the heel of my stiletto. He held it like a handle and maneuvered my legs open as they both entered me at once. Their thick, rock hard cocks were separated by a fraction of an inch of my flesh, and I submitted to them completely as they both began to thrust deep and hard toward my core.

  With my fingers I reached down and found my clit again. All three of us were working my sex organs in tandem. Lyle nodded urgently and began to stroke harder and Owen did the same. I rubbed my clit in fast slippery circles, my hips beginning their ardent grind.

  “Bree," Owen grunted, “you're going to make me come, baby."

  “Yes,” Lyle barked. “God, how are you doing that to me?”

  I shook my head, concentrating on clamping down with my ass and my pussy all at once. My fingers rubbed back and forth, flickering lightly over my clit as my hips ground in tighter and tighter circles. I could feel them swelling within me and their thrusts became hard, punching, desperate. Lyle's fingers slipped off my shoe to rest behind my knee and clawed at my flesh. I heard the growl start in his belly.

  This is it, don't forget a moment of this. This is the thing I always want to remember. This moment right now!

  Suddenly it was unfurling at me. My orgasm started as bright light in the center of my body and turned into a spiraling firework. I could see the sparks s
hooting out through all parts of me across my flesh and into Lyle, and into Owen, and then all three of us were coming all at once. Our voices tangled up together in the air like we were one voice. We rocked together, our bodies slapping in a sweaty, explosive combination of juices, groans, and passion.

  With a final, animal thrust, Lyle and Owen arched their backs simultaneously, burying themselves within me. My body molded around them perfectly and accepted every ounce of what they poured into me. Finally they each slumped against me, draping their arms around me and panting against my neck and back. I shuddered and twitched as the final cascades of my orgasm rushed back and forth across my body again and again.

  With a happy and contented sigh, I kissed the beads of sweat off of Lyle's brow, and then arched my neck backward to accept a sweet, pheromone-sodden kiss from Owen.

  “How did I get so lucky?” I murmured through a satisfied yawn.

  “We are the lucky ones, Bree,” Owen said as Lyle nodded sleepily against my neck, “and we won't ever forget that.”

  As I drifted off to sleep, once again utterly spent and sore and satisfied, I realized that what he was telling me was absolutely true.

  THE END.