by Holley Trent
“Okay. I’m not tiptoeing anymore tonight, guys.” Tess felt like her temples had become drumheads and the voices of the wakeful Afótama were beating rhythmless beats against them. She settled under the blankets yet again and squeezed her eyes shut. “Ollie, I need to touch you. I can spare you a sliver of bed.”
The mattress gave a whine of stress as he sat, and Tess’s body rolled toward him automatically due to the temporary incline of the bed.
“Got enough room?” she asked.
“Only if you’re sleeping on top of me. My bed at home is a California King.”
“If I were on top of you, there’d be no sleeping. Trust me on that.”
The other side of the bed dipped, and Tess rolled toward the middle. “Fair’s fair, I guess.”
“Here you are, sandwiched yet again,” Harvey said.
“Maybe that was my plan all along.”
“Don’t get any ideas.”
“Good ones or bad ones? I’ve got plenty of both.”
She rolled onto her back and crept her hand beneath Ollie’s shirt. Warm skin, hard muscle. He was in damned fine shape for a man of any age, and she understood why Ótama was so insistent Tess bring their warriors home. Their strong women needed strong men, and there just weren’t enough to go around.
She inched her other hand over to the other side of the bed. Her palm had barely registered the warmth of Harvey’s hand when they got tossed back into the white void they’d visited earlier in the day.
They stood in a tight triangle, and both men seemed stunned into silence.
“Don’t move!” Tess said, and increased the pressure on both of their chests. “Don’t. Move.”
“What is this place?” Harvey asked. He looked around them, but there was nothing to see. Just white in all directions, as if they were floating within a sphere of it.
Tess could answer because of her earlier conversation with Ótama. “It’s the queen’s playground,” she said. “What I think becomes real in this realm. Ótama says I need to practice molding the environment into something that makes sense. I guess you’re both in my head right now.”
“This is trippy,” Harvey said, but he didn’t pull his hand away. He closed his eyes and cringed. “Shit, is that what’s going on in your head all the time? It’s so chaotic. I don’t understand any of it.”
“We’re not meant to,” Ollie said quietly. He stood there for a moment, staring at her and pondering. “I can only understand the parts pertaining to me. Is that true, Tess? Your father was born in Fallon? He wasn’t Afótama?”
“Ótama said he was like you. I was going to talk to my grandmother about it when we got back.”
“Tess,” Harvey said. “You don’t have to hide…” His gaze trailed down her torso to her belly button area, and lower—down her thighs, past her knees to her feet. “That from me. Any of it. I won’t dwell on your scars or even discuss them now that I know they’re there.”
Stunned, she blinked at him.
“I can’t see them,” he explained. “Not like this, but now I know they’re there. I won’t ask you.”
And that made her want to tell him. But not yet.
Back in the bedroom, they lay in the quiet dark and all seemed to be guarding their thoughts closely.
Tess kept her hands to herself. “I think The Playground is something I can shut off and turn on at will. Right now, it seems to automatically activate when emotions are high and I touch you both at once. It’s probably meant for the queen and her consort to exchange important information quickly at critical junctures. Perhaps during long trips or battles.”
“I find it somewhat problematic that both Harvey and I are able to enter it,” Ollie said.
“The gods have a sense of humor I’m not particularly fond of right now,” Harvey said.
They weren’t getting it. At all.
Am I going to have to beat them over the head with the idea? Probably.
They didn’t seem to be on the fast track to figuring out the trio thing on their own.
Are men only interested in threesomes when two women are involved?
“What they find humorous leaves something to be desired, that’s for sure,” Ollie said.
Tess rolled her eyes, sighed, and flipped onto her belly. “Goodnight.”
“I thought you wanted to cuddle,” Ollie said.
She did want to cuddle. She just wanted it to be the kind of cuddling that came with penetration and a screaming orgasm, but it would have been uncouth for the queen to say so. “Spoon me, then.”
“My pleasure.” He turned onto his side and pulled her back against his chest. Gentleman that he was, he kept his crotch a safe distance away.
Tess only pretended to be a lady, so she ground her ass against his cock and let out a contented moan. “That’s much better.”
“Keep that up and I’ll give you a reason to change your mind.”
“I look forward to that reason.” She wriggled again, and he hissed into her hair.
“Tess…”
“What?” She wriggled again and grinned triumphantly in the dark at his cock hardening against her ass. She picked up his hand and helped him find her slit.
He fondled her tentatively at first, and then slipped one of his big fingers into her. She bucked against him, and his other hand clamped over her mouth. “I’d prefer to not have an audience,” he projected, but he didn’t stop finger-fucking her. His rough thumb engaged her clit, teasing the hood of it and avoiding the tender flesh beneath. If he touched her there, he’d launch her ass right off the bed.
“What if I want one?” she asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re into kink.”
“I’m into a lot of things, some of which don’t even have labels. That bother you?”
He rolled her onto her belly, yanked her nightshirt up, and pulled her ass up into the air.
She giggled against the mattress. She knew. A little teasing, and he’d take control.
“What the hell are you two doing?” Harvey sat up and slapped the lamp switch right as Ollie pressed his fat head against her opening.
He nudged her legs farther apart with his knee and slipped in past her entrance. “Cuddling,” he said. “Want to watch?”
He sounded like he couldn’t give a shit whether Harvey watched or not, but the idea turned Tess on so much that her cream dampened her thighs.
It didn’t take much when these two were concerned.
She wanted him to watch—to see his little submissive getting well and truly fucked by a man he couldn’t stand. She wanted him to ignite that spirit of competitiveness and join in, but she wasn’t even sure he’d stay on the bed.
The tip of Ollie’s cock touched the end of her, and he hadn’t even sheathed himself completely inside her.
“Fuck!”
Ollie patted the small of her back. “Might want to give it a minute. You’re so damned tight.”
“Sounds about right,” Harvey muttered, and he reached for the lamp switch.
“Leave it on and enjoy the show,” Ollie returned.
“I’ve already seen it, and from a much better position than I’m in right now. I didn’t have a front row seat. I was the seat.”
Tess rolled her eyes at the I-got-there-first burn, but it didn’t matter, anyway. Ollie didn’t seem bothered by it.
He started slow, tentative thrusts into her that had her toes curling and teeth chattering in less than thirty seconds.
He was so big, that the sensation was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Harvey had fucked her into seeing stars because he knew how to move and all the right spots to hit. He combined the pleasure with an edge, so her orgasm was powerful enough to muddle her brain for an hour afterward. He wasn’t a small man by any stretch of the imagination, but he wasn’t Ollie big.
She was so full she was nearing the point of overstimulation where she might end up crying as she came. Her body couldn’t process all the feelings in any other way.
A
nd she thought she would take both of them at the same time?
They would break her like a wishbone.
She giggled.
She wanted to try, anyway. She wanted to be sandwiched between her two men and have her brains fucked out in every way possible. Obviously, she must have been tapped into a bit of Fiona’s psychosis. That was the only explanation for it.
“If you weren’t clamping down on me like a vise grip and begging me for it, I’d be a little bit offended by the giggling, baby.” Ollie planted his hands on her ass, spread her cheeks, and squeezed.
“She can’t help it,” Harvey said blandly.
Tess opened her eyes to serve him up a dirty look, but her gaze caught immediately on the movement of his hand, up and down, beneath the sheets.
“Don’t look so surprised,” he projected as Ollie increased his pace from torturous to brain-liquefying. “Isn’t that what you wanted? You wanted to see me lose control, right?”
“No,” she whispered. That hadn’t been her end goal at all. She’d just wanted them both to touch her—to show how much fun they could have if they worked together instead of in opposition.
“Want you.”
He arched up an eyebrow. “Hmm? Is he not giving it to you good enough?”
She ground her teeth and clawed at the sheets as her orgasm built.
“Oh, that face.” His grin was devilish. “He’s so kind to let you come without permission. Go ahead and finish up, and remember—queen or not, I have no problem with bending you over my knee. Obviously, you need it.”
She came, and it would have been loudly if Ollie hadn’t reached up and put her hand over her mouth.
“Shhh,” he said. “Let’s not have the entire floor speculating on who’s getting fucked by whom. It’ll make walking out of here in the morning very interesting.” He swiveled his hips and found an entry angle that had her mumbling gibberish against his hand.
When his hot come surged into her, he unclamped her mouth and leaned over her to kiss her shoulders.
She collapsed onto the bed and locked her gaze on Harvey, whose clenched jaw and shaking shoulders told her he’d found his release, too.
“Fuck,” Harvey whispered. He put his head back and reached for her hand, and she for his. Their fingers touched, and she knew she only had a moment speak her piece, so she gave it to him in terms he’d understand.
“You grew up sharing everything you had because you had to. Is this any different?”
“You mean…”
Swallowing, she nodded.
Wide-eyed understanding dawned on his face.
Harvey knew. Whether he liked it or not, he knew what they were meant to be. Three. Knowing was the first step in coming to terms with it.
Ollie padded to the bathroom and turned on the water in the sink.
“And him?” Harvey projected.
Tess sighed. “He might need convincing.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Back in Norseton the next day, Tess grabbed Harvey’s wrist and turned it over to read his watch’s display.
He chuckled and chafed her back through her borrowed jacket. Desert temperatures perplexed her. She’d expected New Mexico to be hot, but found that the temperatures this fall left something to be desired for a hothouse flower like her. She was cold all the damned time.
“Muriel said she’d be here at two.” He took her hands and tucked them into the back pockets of his jeans, pulling her front against his in the process. Knowing what he looked like beneath all that neat attire made casual touching difficult. Her hands itched to yank free the back of his shirt so she could feel the taut sinews of his back. She wanted to put her face against his chest and inhale his seductive musk. Then, she could twirl the tip of her tongue around his navel and farther down to—
“Tess.” He gave her ass a warning squeeze. “You’re thinking loud.”
She cringed.
“We’ve got a few minutes, so why don’t we clear the air while it’s just us two, huh?” His words pulled her free of her indulgent daydreaming. He was right. They needed to discuss the thing that had happened the night before.
She nodded, and he took her by the crook of the arm and led her to the gazebo in the center of the Norseton community square. Nan had thought that Tess being seen out and about would be good for public relations, so Harvey had suggested the lovely little park as a meeting place. As Nan and Jody would be joining them from across town where they’d gone to settle Fiona in, a central location worked best for all.
Shops and tidy little single-family homes bordered the square. There was a thriving community there in the middle of the desert, and few people knew about it. They had their own post office, a grocery store, and even an independent power supply. Solar panels were as common as air conditioners. Water was harder to come by, but the people were diligent conservators. There were no lush lawns or water-loving plants—just smart landscaping using what was native and sustainable. Almost everyone who lived and worked in Norseton was Afótama. The few exceptions were people who’d married into or had been adopted by the group, and some contractors who were paid handsomely to keep their mouths shut. Some were human, and some…well, Jody wouldn’t elaborate.
They sat on one of the gazebo’s five benches. Harvey pulled her borrowed jacket together at her neck, skimming her chin with his thumb in the process. “Comfy?”
“No.”
“Indulge me and tell me why.”
“It’s not because this bench is hard.” She sighed and sat up straighter. Meeting his gaze shouldn’t have been such a difficult thing.
She held out a hand, and he took it. “Let me try something.”
Closing her eyes, she sought out that place she’d only visited accidentally before. Her playground was just as white and sterile as it had been when she’d fallen into it with Harvey and Ollie, but for the first time, she tried to shape it. She molded it into one of the few places where she’d felt safe as a child—where she’d sought refuge—and one Harvey would recognize, too. It was a park, but different than the one their bodies waited in.
Their special place.
She pulled him by the hand between two dipping tree boughs, and they settled onto the accumulated leaves with their backs against a large rock.
He laughed. “Wow. Of all places.”
“Yeah.” She’d run away once when she was too young to be successful at it. Harvey had found her there and coaxed her out. Later, it became her hiding place—when she just needed to get away. It was no wonder they were halfway to matehood before puberty. He’d been her solace for so long.
“So…how do we start this?” she asked.
“The conversation or the arrangement?”
“Either.”
He sighed. “First things first, tell me how you feel about it. No bullshit.”
She cringed. “You’ll be angry with me.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because that’s the rational response to a situation like this. The woman you’ve committed yourself to wanting to take a second lover isn’t and shouldn’t be a normal thing.”
“I’m not angry with you, sweetheart. Disappointed? Yeah, I definitely feel some of that. I waited so long for you, and didn’t believe us getting together would actually happen.”
“And as soon as we did, I latched onto another man.”
He turned his hands over, palms-up. “We’re on the same page. I know that you can’t help it. Afótama are supposed to be immediately drawn to their mates, and you did that with Oliver.”
“In spite of already being partially bonded to you.”
“I guess you could consider it an escape clause. I was switched on from birth, but you weren’t. I wanted you, but you didn’t feel the same pull.”
Tess cringed. “It wasn’t like that. We were too close. You were…”
“Like a brother to you. Don’t even say it.”
“Then I won’t.”
“I wasn’t going to push it, Tes
s. I was going to get out of the way, partial bond or not, so that you had your chance at head-over-heels with someone. And then I realized that you’re my only chance for that, and I shouldn’t be so quick to give it up.”
“So, that’s why you’d fight for me?”
He brought her hands up to his lips and kissed the backs of them. “Anyone who really loved you would.”
“L-loved me?”
“Mm-hmm.” Nudging up her sleeve, he pressed his lips over her wrist at her pulse point. The teasing warmth traveled up her arm and bloomed in her core. Her nipples tightened and sex tingled, but it didn’t matter how turned on she was because fucking was out of the question for the moment.
Does he know how seriously fucked up I am? Obviously, he doesn’t.
“I don’t expect you to feel the same.” He let her hand down, but held it on his lap. “I know you care about me and enjoy my company—”
“Stop it. Don’t try to put words in my mouth, and don’t make what I feel out to be less than what it is. You’re irreplaceable, and I can’t imagine being here if you weren’t. You’re my friend, yes, but you’re also the most attentive lover I’ve ever had and I don’t want to separate those two things. You get me.”
“Yeah, I get you, sweetheart.”
She twirled a length of his loose hair around her fingers and warily met his gaze. “I want to get you, too. I want to understand you. Keep you. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I don’t want you around me if you’re not mine. ”
His lips quirked into a half grin. “What would my queen have me do?”
She rolled her eyes. “Your queen would have you formally tell her that you’re willing to share.”
He leaned back against the rock again and smoothed his hair back from his face. “It seems to be the gods’ will, which makes the scenario easier for me to accept. Perhaps it’s for the best. I travel so much for work that I’d rarely have to see him.”
She gave him a playful cuff to the arm. “Be nice.”
“Nice? Doll, I thought you knew me better than that.” He pushed up an eyebrow and wrapped his fist around her ponytail. He gave it a sharp tug, and she sighed contentedly.
