Striped

by Barnette, Abigail

  Mitchell tossed the belt aside and joined them on the bed. His fist pumped the length of his cock, and Jason sat up, not bothering to wipe off his chest before leaning over to cover the head with his mouth. Amazed by the speed and intensity Jason displayed, Sean could only watch as Mitchell gave over to the pleasure Jason brought him. When Mitchell came, he opened his mouth to utter a groan that caught in his throat. His body bowed, and the veins stood out against his neck before he fell back.

  The bed creaked as Jason lay across the foot of it. “You know, the bed at our house is way bigger.”

  “I have a lease here,” Sean said quickly.

  “I was just thinking we should head over there for the night,” Jason said with a laugh. “Let’s not go leaping into this.”

  Mitchell reached for the box of kleenex on the night stand. He tossed it to Jason. “There’s nothing wrong with being cautious, Sean. We’re not going to hold that against you.”

  “You’ve got your own thing, I don’t want to screw it up,” Sean said with an apologetic smile.

  “Mitchell and I are very happy. You’re not going to screw us up.” Jason nudged Mitchell’s foot with his own, and the casual touch was the first truly possessive thing Sean had ever seen either of them display. Stranger still, he didn’t feel slighted or threatened by it, because it hadn’t been meant that way.

  Even more bizarre, Sean realized that someday, he wouldn’t mind Jason or Mitchell being possessive of him.

  “Forgive my optimism,” Mitchell interrupted, sitting up. “But I think we might have broken our Mr. Sean Warren of his nasty habit of chasing after the locals.”

  Sean leaned over and brushed his lips against Mitchell’s. Mitchell accepted the invitation readily, pulling his head down and kissing him until he forcibly broke free. Sean laughed against his cheek as Jason wrestled Sean to the bed and took over where Mitchell had been thwarted.

  “Yeah, okay, but you didn’t break me of my habit entirely,” Sean reminded them. “You just got me interested in chasing someone else.”

  Jason ground his already recovered cock against Sean’s thigh. “I think we’re the ones who chased you.”

  Closing his eyes, Sean braced his toes against the mattress as Mitchell kissed his way down Sean’s chest. They had chased him, all right. And he was so, so glad he’d let himself get caught.

  Epilogue

  Sean took a deep breath, peeled off his t-shirt and lay face down on the padded black vinyl.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Mitchell asked, catching the shirt Sean tossed his way.

  Sean wiggled a little to get comfortable. “Oh, yes. One hundred percent sure.”

  A soft click and an electronic beep caught both men’s attention. “Camera’s good to go,” Jason said. “Ready whenever you are.”

  Sean nodded. “Let’s go.”

  He’d deliberated for over a year. Everyone knew it was bad luck to get a tattoo of a lover’s name. Two names seemed twice as unlucky. Their relationship was undeniably strong, but Sean had never been a fan of tempting fate. He’d decided to add two more stripes to his back, between the existing ones, in red to signify Jason and Mitchell.

  The needle of the tattoo machine hummed and the artist pressed the point of it to Sean’s back.

  “That doesn’t look so bad,” Jason said. “I could probably handle that. What do you think?”

  Sean heard Mitchell’s soft chuckle. “I think you’re crazy if you think I’m getting on that table.”

  It wasn’t like Sean had plans to go anywhere. He’d tried to wait out his lease on the cabin. Mitchell and Jason had evicted him, all in good humor, about a month early, so he could move in with them. It still took some getting used to; for a while, Sean suspected he would still think of it as Mitchell and Jason’s house. But they both loved him, and he loved both of them. It was hard to be pessimistic or feel out of place when you were surrounded by so much love, at all hours of the day.

  “Come on,” Sean wheedled. “We could be like the Three Musketeers.”

  Mitchell would not be swayed. “I don’t remember the chapter where Porthos and Athos got matching tattoos.”

  “If you can prove you read that book and not just watched the Disney movie, I will give you a hundred dollars,” Jason said.

  “I plead the fifth on the grounds that I was in college, and Charlie Sheen used to be hot.”

  Closing his eyes, Sean was content to feel the hot, sharp lines of the tattoo being laid down. Let the other two men bicker it out. He didn’t think they needed tattoos, or any other physical representation of what they meant to each other. His new stripes, on the other hand, those were a reminder for him of what they’d been patient enough to teach him, and what he’d never again have a problem accepting.

  He might still be a solitary animal, but he belonged to them.

  About the Author

  The alter-ego of USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer Armintrout, Abigail Barnette was born during a conversation with author Bronwyn Green, who encouraged Jennifer to develop an elaborate fantasy persona-- complete with nom de plume-- under which to pen erotic romance. Abigail enjoys long naps in fairy-filled glades, running through corridors in tragically romantic haunted castles, and drinking goblet after goblet of spiced wine.

  Abigail loves to talk to her readers and can be found at abigailbarnette.com.

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