Lucy's Liberation [Elk Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Gigi Moore

  Had Ki been one of Rance’s victims, maybe his very first?

  Prentice didn’t know how to ask or even if he should with Lucy all cuddled up between them, obviously, finally feeling safe and secure enough with them to instantly fall asleep.

  He wondered if maybe Lucy had already guessed about Ki’s past on her own and why he hadn’t thought about the possibility of sexual abuse before now. It was, after all, a logical assumption, all things considered.

  Prentice suddenly felt a tingle of energy at the base of his skull, the type of spike he usually got right before he employed his powers. The last time he had felt the tingle was at Winchester’s right before his confrontation with Cody. Since then, he had given up on his powers reappearing and realized that the sex between him, Ki and Lucy just now must have been significant enough—emotionally, physically—to reignite his abilities. Either this, or Goddess had seen fit to bestow his powers upon him again.

  For how long? And why now?

  Prentice extended his psychic fingers and for the first time in his life he felt awful about using his gifts on someone without their permission.

  It’s called a conscience, Prentice, and I knew you had it in you.

  He suddenly felt embarrassed and even a little annoyed to think that Brielle or, worse, that Caith had been watching while he, Lucy, and Ki had made love. It had been too exquisite and intimate an act for an audience.

  Prentice waited for Brielle to say something about what he was doing, to stop him, but no further chastisement was forthcoming.

  Was this his fork in the road? Had Goddess given him back his gifts just to see what he would do with them if they were at his disposal?

  I don’t have to use them. I have a choice.

  He asked himself what would Aura do, she who had once told him he had corrupted his powers, and he realized he just needed to do the opposite of what the old Prentice would have done in this situation.

  He wanted to know what secrets Ki harbored, however. He wanted to know what memories hurt him and kept him up at night. He needed to know what was Ki’s Achilles’ heel.

  Prentice knew the things that kept him up at night—not being in control, feeling weak and small… Not being in control was his biggest fear and he bet it was one of Ki’s fears too. Knowing this, he couldn’t pry into Ki’s mind without his consent. He couldn’t, wouldn’t take that choice away from anyone anymore.

  He would not dig, at least not psychically.

  “He did things to you, didn’t he, Ki?” Prentice rasped, his glance automatically turning to Lucy to see if she stirred. She didn’t so Prentice turned his gaze back to Ki.

  Ki stared back at him, the euphoric haze from their lovemaking slowly dissipating from his expression. He was quiet for so long, Prentice didn’t think he would respond before Ki simply nodded.

  “You can tell me.” Instinctively, he left out the I won’t think any less of you, didn’t think it was necessary to voice.

  “My uncle, he wasn’t…he wasn’t always the man who did the awful things he did to those boys.”

  Prentice gritted his teeth, determined not to judge though he didn’t think anything Ki said could change his mind about the man he knew Rance had been. “I’m listening.”

  “I was seven when my father died and Rance, he filled in as the male role model in my life. I know it’s probably difficult for you to understand knowing him as you did, but he…he loved me and I loved him.

  “Initially, our relationship was a good one, healthy and honorable, one born of genuine affection and hero worship. The more we were alone together, however, the more my uncle’s innocent glances and touches turned into something…not-so-innocent. At first I didn’t recognize what he was doing as wrong until the touches became more insistent, made me too uncomfortable to ignore. I kept telling myself that Uncle Rance loved me and he wouldn’t hurt me. I trusted him.”

  Of course he had trusted Rance. Rance had been the idolized adult, the man who had taken the place of his father, and Ki had been an innocent little boy who’d only wanted acceptance and love.

  He tried to give Rance the benefit of the doubt that he hadn’t given his parents, but not even his conversion and tolerance could go that far.

  It was so difficult for Prentice to reconcile the Rance-on-a-pedestal that Ki described with Rance-the-pedophile-serial-killer who had mistreated and terrorized Lucy for so many years.

  He looked at Ki’s face, the deep furrows that formed in his brow as he concentrated and instantly Prentice regretted making Ki take such an unpleasant trip down memory lane.

  He reached his arm over Lucy’s head to tunnel his fingers through Ki’s hair. The strands were so silky and soft it was hard to believe they were attached to a man who could be so commanding and tenacious when he chose. Compassion overwhelmed Prentice’s senses. He sympathized with Ki for his past and loved him more for overcoming it without giving in to the darkness the way Prentice had.

  “Can I try something?” Prentice asked him, thinking of Thayne and how the town’s doctor had comforted him when he’d returned in Ethan’s body. Maybe he could give Ki a measure of that well-being.

  Ki frowned but nodded.

  Prentice felt the other man’s trust smooth over his scarred soul like a balm. Ki’s spirit naturally, willingly opened to him.

  He gently massaged Ki’s scalp as if he could soothe away the bad recollections, always remembering not to take more than the other man gave. The psychic door was open, however, so Prentice decided to walk through it.

  He flexed his psychic muscles, testing their range. Satisfied that, for the moment, he had what he needed, Prentice slowly wove the tendrils of his psychic energy with the tendrils of Ki’s psychic energy. He watched Ki’s expression for any changes and saw a brief flicker in the sky-blue eyes when Ki realized what he was doing.

  “How…?”

  “There are some things about me besides reincarnation that Lucy didn’t share with you.”

  “And here I thought I knew it all.”

  Prentice grinned at Ki’s attempt at humor, glad he hadn’t lost the man so soon after finally finding him. “Will you trust me?”

  “I already do.”

  “Close your eyes.”

  Ki did.

  Prentice continued rubbing Ki’s scalp, concentrating his psychic energy on soothing rather than the coercion he had utilized so many times in the past. The transition was surprisingly easy and more fulfilling knowing that he was causing pleasure rather than pain.

  Who knew?

  He stared at Ki for a long moment, watched as his face relaxed and his eyes rapidly moved back and forth beneath their lids.

  Prentice was surprised that Ki seemed to be experiencing REM and he wondered if his powers had rushed Ki’s cycle and thrown him into a deep sleep.

  He turned his body into Lucy’s and reached across her to hug Ki, drawing both of them closer. He wanted to go to sleep, but knew he shouldn’t. He should leave before Margaret came home, if she wasn’t home already. He needed a few more moments to wind down and rejoice in being close to his lovers, a few more moments to enjoy the alien sensation of not being alone.

  “You’re not alone, Ethan,” Ki mumbled. “You’ll never be alone again.”

  Prentice jerked his gaze to Ki and saw that his eyes were still closed but he’d spoken as if he was fully awake and had read Prentice’s mind.

  Was Ki one of those rare gifted people totally unaware of his own abilities? Had the connection Prentice wrought triggered Ki’s dormant gifts?

  “I love you, Ethan and Lucy. I love you…”

  Was Ki still asleep, his subconscious making him verbalize things he knew Prentice, and probably Lucy, wanted to hear?

  Regardless of the source of Ki’s words, Prentice hugged him and Lucy just a little tighter and smiled. “I love you and Lucy, too,” he whispered and hoped he didn’t live to regret admitting that.

  * * * *

  He couldn’t sleep, tossing and turni
ng in his bed at the Westyn ranch bunkhouse as if someone had put a bunch of ants in his bedcovers.

  Just that one bump, that single instance of contact against the sweet newlywed had jolted him. The waft of her vanilla scent, the brief feel of her soft skin, confirmed his reasons for sticking around to watch his prey rather than finishing him off and leaving town.

  He could still smell her on him and the incident at the church had occurred hours previous, so long ago he should have forgotten about the young filly by now.

  He understood now why Ethan had wanted to go straight and stay in the town where he had been born and raised.

  It was a plumb shame Ethan and that fancy pants New Yorker weren’t going to have the chance to enjoy their little prize all to themselves for much longer.

  He might as well make his time in Elk Creek really worth his while and kill three birds with one stone—Ethan and his two lovers—after he had some fun with the filly, that was.

  Chapter 23

  A few days later, Ki opened his eyes to the welcomed and now-familiar sight of Lucy and Ethan huddled against him.

  Just as quickly, the unwelcomed thought of his mother’s presence pierced his brain.

  Had she made it home yet or was she still out on the town shopping and touring as had become her routine since she had made it to Elk Creek?

  Ki glanced out the window and saw that the sun had already risen and knew even his mother, who had been on a pretty active schedule in town, socializing and contributing her money to various businesses making purchases, had to have arrived home long ago.

  Lucy stirred beside him, stretching her arms above her head and yawning.

  Ki leaned in to kiss her pert little nose.

  There was so much he wanted to say to her, so much he wanted to ask her. He didn’t want to put it off any longer, even if his mother was home and they needed to make an appearance to curb her curiosity. If his mother hadn’t come to look for them yet, she had probably assumed they were doing what a newlywed couple did on their honeymoon and had decided to leave them alone…for the time being. As long as she hadn’t walked in on them, there was no way she could know that Ethan was in bed with them too as had been their routine for the last few nights since they had all initiated their ménage à trois.

  True, they had all been careful around the house with their amorous activities, loath to rouse his mother’s suspicions or instigate the need for full disclosure. Ki knew from past experience, however, no matter how careful he was, somehow, somewhere, his mother had her ways of finding out what he was up to, and with whom.

  He thought of Mirabella and shuddered. Yet he had had just as many dalliances with men as women in his sexual history and to date his mother had not found out…that he knew of. There was no telling what his mother actually knew unless she wanted him to know she knew.

  Ki shook his head at the thought. He would only go crazy if he continued to worry over something that may or may not have happened.

  He comforted himself with the knowledge that he was an adult and he made his own decisions. What he did in the privacy of his bedroom behind closed doors was his business. At least he had always felt this way before Ethan and Lucy.

  He wondered now what was different about his relationship with them than the relationships he had shared with countless other men and women. Could it be that he actually cared about Ethan and Lucy, that he actually could picture a future with them?

  The truth came to Ki in an instant and it worried him more than the idea of his mother finding out about Ethan. He knew what the difference was between his current romantic liaison and his past romantic liaisons.

  He truly was in love with Ethan and Lucy.

  Suddenly, he remembered the confession he had made to Ethan and the declaration he had made to Ethan and Lucy the other evening, words he had previously believed he had only dreamed saying to them. Had he dreamed Ethan’s soft avowal of love? Had Lucy heard Ki’s assertion? She hadn’t acted like a woman he or Ethan had said I-love-you to once they’d all woken up.

  “What has you frowning so early in the morning?” Lucy asked him.

  “Why did you really quit Winchester’s?” Ki blurted and watched as Lucy got a familiar guarded look on her face. He knew then that he had hit a nerve and was sorry that it had taken him so long to follow up on his suspicions when Lucy had first made her announcement about quitting her job at the saloon.

  “It was just time, nothing else.”

  Ki caught the look Lucy cast over her shoulder and saw that Ethan was awake now, too. He also knew that the two of them were hiding something from him again. “We’re not building this relationship on lies and secrets, you two. I don’t want anything between us. Tell me.”

  Lucy averted her gaze and Ki caught the blush that turned her cheeks rosy.

  He put his finger under her chin to lift her face. “Talk to me, Lulu.”

  “Cody…he gave me a hard time that last night.”

  “If he hurt you…”

  “He didn’t get the chance to. Ethan stepped in to protect me.”

  “I can’t take all the credit. Eartha did her thing also to cool things down.”

  Ki looked from one to the other, feeling like he was at a tennis match and knew that they were trying to downplay the seriousness of the incident.

  He’d known from his first moments in that lawyer’s office that Cody was a bitter man and that he would cause trouble for him and Lucy. He just hadn’t known how much trouble and how much of a threat he represented to Ethan and Lucy. Truth was, he wouldn’t have been unhappy to see Ethan leave Winchester’s, too. The place, like most saloons in the town, presented too much of an opportunity for sudden violence, and he didn’t want either his wife or their lover exposed to it. He knew, however, if he brought up the idea of Ethan leaving, the stripling would rebel just as Lucy had. He knew that something serious would have to happen to make Ethan change his mind about working at Winchester’s. Otherwise, Ethan probably figured he could handle himself.

  “No more secrets. You two need to bring your concerns to me, anything or anyone that you think is a threat to you,” Ki said, and watched as Ethan averted his glance. “You’re going to have a problem with that?”

  “Well, inasmuch as I don’t know who shot me, or more accurately who shot Ethan before I came to in his body, I can’t tell you who the threat to Ethan is.”

  Ki rubbed his chin at this. “We’ll just have to be extra careful around everyone then.”

  “That’s what I’ve been doing. But again, I don’t know what or whom to look out for.”

  “We’ll work it out. I promise. I’m not going to let anything happen to either one of you.” Ki hugged them both when he said it right before a firm knock sounded on the door.

  “Breakfast is ready!” his mother called.

  “Guess that’s our cue to break up this lovefest,” Ethan said.

  Ki didn’t know exactly what a lovefest was, but he had a good idea and took his mother’s exclamation as a signal to start one rather than break one up.

  He bent his head to kiss Lucy, teasing her mouth with his before he slipped in his tongue to taste her. His cock instantly hardened at the idea of being inside her ass and he quickly disengaged from her mouth to flip her onto her side. He spooned against her, rubbing his shaft on the round giving flesh of her ass as Lucy moaned and wriggled back into him.

  Ki caught Ethan’s glance over Lucy’s head and watched while realization dawned and Ethan smiled as if in agreement with Ki’s secret desire…as if he could read Ki’s mind.

  “We have to make it quick. I don’t want to keep Margaret waiting,” Lucy said.

  Ki slid his arms around her body to grasp her breasts in both hands, nuzzling her neck as he lightly rolled and pinched her nipples. “Don’t worry about my mother,” he murmured in her ear and when she gasped at his manipulations, Ki knew he had succeeded in making her forget all about breakfast and his mother.

  Ki retrieved the lubricant h
e had purchased from Healing Magick, the lightly scented substance something Maia swore by. Ki swore by it, too, as it had eased his way inside Lucy and Ethan and seemed to increase their pleasure. He swiftly applied the substance to his shaft and in and around Lucy’s ass, loving the clench of her inner muscles against his fingers as he penetrated her hot, tight hole. His cock twitched when he pulled his fingers out of her.

  Ethan slid down the bed until his face was aligned with Lucy’s pussy.

  Ki watched him use his thumbs to spread Lucy’s pussy lips before Ethan plunged his tongue inside her. His cock throbbed at the sight and the sounds of Ethan’s sucking and licking that blended with Lucy’s lilting moans.

  Ki slid one hand down to Lucy’s hip, bracing her as he guided his cock to her back hole with his other hand. Inch by inch he fed his cock inside her, avidly watching as his shaft disappeared between her voluptuous ass cheeks.

  Lucy pushed back against him, and Ki grunted at the sudden movement as she impaled herself until he was buried balls-deep inside her.

  “You eager little minx.” He nibbled her throat, slowly circling his hips as she purred and coordinated her movements to his.

  Ki pulled out a couple of inches, then thrust back in, rocking and rolling his hips until Lucy was wildly writhing in his arms.

  The rush to that familiar pressure at the base of his spine was sudden and unprecedented. He was going to climax and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop no matter whether Lucy joined him or not.

  Once again reading his mind, Ethan added his fingers to the equation, sliding them inside Lucy’s pussy as he continued to suck her swollen nub into his mouth.

  Lucy turned her head to kiss Ki, effectively smothering her cries against his mouth when she broke apart in his arms.

  Ki thrust his tongue between her parted lips, stroking hers as she shuddered against him, provoking his own trembling release in quick succession.