by L. E. Harner
This weekend was beautiful, he wouldn’t change a minute, except for the way he knew it would end. Cade would be uncomfortable around Carter. They’d quit working out together, quit hanging out in the evenings, quit wanting to share a home. Eventually, Cade wouldn’t be able to look at him at work and even their law practice would have to be divided. This weekend was the beginning of the end.
Carter wanted nothing more than to stay here forever. The three of them wrapped in their own reality, but he knew that would never happen. God, it had taken this weekend to realize how much he loved Cade, in so many ways. He would step aside, offer anything to see Cade happy. If Cade wanted Christina when this was over, he should have her. But if he didn’t…
“You don’t have to, you know,” Carter said softly. “You don’t have to go back to being alone. Shh, don’t say anything, just listen. You’re right, it’s the same for me. We’re afraid the love we’re feeling this weekend will melt away with the snow. We both know that Cade and I can’t go back to being what we were. He loves me, I know that. But it’s the love of a brother, not a lover, not forever. It’s not the way I love him.
“I won’t wait around and watch that love die. I need to find a place to live next week. We can probably work together for a while, but if I wait too long, eventually he’ll begin to hate me for what we’ve done this weekend.
“I believe Cade loves you, Chrissie, he really does. I think he’ll want to stay with you forever. But if the choices we made this weekend get in the way of that loving, just know I’ll be waiting.
“I’ll always be here for you, always want you in my life. I love you, Christina,” Carter said.
“I love you, too.” She smiled through her tears.
* * * * *
Cade lowered his hand from where he’d been prepared to knock on the doorframe. His heart squeezed tight in his chest, and he staggered from the pain. Carter loved Christina, and she loved him back. This weekend would cost him the two people most dear to him, the people he loved most in the world. He pressed his head against the door for a minute, trying to breathe.
Without saying a word he went to the bed and stretched out, forearm over his eyes, and fought not to howl with pain. He wouldn’t be so selfish. It had been a long shot, and he’d known it going in. He couldn’t really expect them to fly in the face of convention and stay with him forever. Still, the news hurt.
With a heartfelt sigh, Cade made himself a promise. He would never let them know how much it hurt. He would only show the genuine joy he felt at their discovered love. If he couldn’t have Christina, Carter was the only man he’d want by her side. If he and Carter had to leave each other, then it was only right Christina would be the one for Carter. He would always love them, and he would be happy that they loved each other.
The rest of tonight would be devoted to fulfilling their fantasies and then, tomorrow, Cade would start backing away and let them get to know each other without his interference. He knew he should probably step aside tonight, but he just wasn’t that strong. Carter had fantasized about this for long enough; Cade would give him what he wanted. Maybe when Carter and Christina were old and gray, they could still look back on this weekend as the turning point in their relationship.
Cade realized that without Carter or Chrissie in his life, he couldn’t even picture himself as old and gray.
Chapter Nine
Christina climbed onto the bed next to Cade and, without any planning, she and Carter began to move their mouths over his hard, golden body. First, Christina kissed Cade, her lips hot and trembling from the emotions swirling within her. Then she watched as Carter took his mouth in an almost desperate kiss. She knew he was already mourning the loss of his friend. She placed a gentle hand on his arm and, when he looked up at her, she smiled. She smiled to remind him they still had tonight.
Cade’s kisses were hard and so was his cock, and Christina worked her way down his chest to pull him into her mouth. Slowly, she began to work him. With her tongue flat, she stroked the hard, velvet tip, tasted his pre-cum. She traced her tongue along the big vein on the underside, and then worked her lips over the ridged top to suck him in. He was longer than Carter and nearly as thick. His breath stilled when she sucked on the tip and slid her tongue along the slit.
Christina looked up and found the sight she’d come to love. Carter was kissing Cade, his tongue tracing lips, teeth nibbling, then their mouths pressed together and their tongues tangled. She realized this was the first time she and Carter had both made Cade the focus of their attention. Cade had successfully been directing the action for their pleasure.
Cade realized this was the first time he had been between Christina and Carter and they were both focused on him. The moment was too bittersweet for words, and he gently pulled away from Christina’s mouth and pushed Carter off him. God, their kisses had been sweet.
“I want to watch you eat each other. Christina slide under Carter. Carter, on your knees, give me your ass, but stay low enough so Chrissie can reach you,” Cade said as he lifted his friend onto his knees.
The tension in Carter’s body was back, but he was hard. Christina put a pillow under her head so she could reach his cock and took Carter into her mouth with a moan of pleasure. Or maybe her pleasure was from the tongue working her clit. Either way, she was being very vocal.
A hungry fire burned low in his belly as he watched Christina devour Carter’s cock. Her tongue flicked over the thick head before she licked and sucked, and Cade licked his lips. He wanted to join her, to taste Carter, but he would lose his tight control if he tried that forbidden fruit.
He traced his fingers over Carter’s ass, across his balls, and back up. He felt shudders beneath his hands. “I’m taking the plug out now, just relax.”
The noise Carter made was almost a sob, and Cade soothed his friend with kisses over his back and ass.
“You did good, Carter,” he told him between kisses, and Carter lifted his ass. They were both ready.
“Chrissie, turn around on the bed, put a couple of pillows under your hips. Carter, up higher on your knees.” He handed Carter a condom and took one himself. After they were both covered, he said, “I want you inside Christina while I’m inside you.”
He could see Carter in the full-length mirror, and he watched the emotions play across Carter’s face. Christina brushed her fingers lovingly over Carter’s cheeks, murmuring words of encouragement.
Cade poured lubricant between Carter’s ass cheeks and began to massage it in. The tiny rosebud opening was much more relaxed after the daylong treatment, and Cade slipped three fingers in while he made sure there was plenty of lubricant to keep from hurting Carter.
“Push back, Carter, push with your hips. I’m going to go in gentle. I’m bigger than the plug, and I don’t want to hurt you.” Fisting his cock in his hand, he pressed the broad tip against Carter’s anus. He slowly pushed past the tight ring of muscles, and then he was inside. He gave his own shudder at how tightly his cock was squeezed inside Carter’s dark tunnel.
Carter moaned, and Christina moaned with him. Cade stayed still for a moment before pushing himself a little deeper. He watched Carter’s face in the mirror, listened to the way his breath caught in his throat, watched for signs of distress. When he was most of the way in, he slowly withdrew and then pushed deeper still. And again. And again. Cade was nearly overwhelmed by the trust Carter was showing him, by the love he felt for the two people below him.
Carter began to move with Cade, sliding his own cock in and out of Christina, feeling full and stretched and unbelievably turned on. Christ, this was powerful. Cade’s strong stroke filled him.
“Fuck me,” Carter whispered, as he slammed into Christina in time with Cade’s plunging cock.
As Cade pressed hard fingers into his hips, he felt Cade’s heavy balls slap against his ass. He knew none of them would last much longer. They were all grunting with the force of this mating. Faster, harder. Oh God, he thought, right there, as Cade
’s rhythm found the spot.
His insides exploded, color and fire behind his eyes. Every muscle clenched, and all the blood in his body raced toward his core, ready to be part of this orgasm. His head whipped back as his body bowed. He was so deep inside Christina he was pressed against her womb. Cade shifted his stroke to small thrusts, hitting his prostrate, making him moan with the sensation.
Cum shot from his cock, his balls were hard little rocks, and he was pushing, spurting. He screamed his pleasure, his voice hoarse, temporarily deaf and blind, unable to say up from down. Cade’s stroke changed, and he glided long and hard, holding Carter’s hips, slamming into his ass, never giving his cock a chance to go soft with release. The sensation bordered on pain, yet Carter wanted more.
Christina raised her legs and wrapped them around both men’s waists, driving them all, rocking with pleasure. He knew Cade was close—he’d lost his rhythm—but still he slammed, and Carter tightened involuntarily around him as the sensation intensified.
“Oh, fuck,” Cade yelled, and he buried himself to his balls while Carter’s tight canal milked every last drop.
The feel of Cade’s orgasm set off renewed thrusts, and Carter slipped a finger over Christina’s clit. Her orgasm was instantaneous. She must have been hanging on by a whisper. He joined her and shot his second load of cum and prayed the condom would hold it all.
Chapter Ten
“How long has he been out there?” Carter asked.
Christina switched her attention from watching Cade outside so that she could admire the expanse of chest in front of her. Carter was wearing blue jeans and a smile. His black waves were nicely tousled, his face still swollen with sleep, and he looked like he should be her breakfast. She wanted to grab his hand and lead him back to bed. Which was exactly what Cade said she should do. That was the problem.
From the minute they’d all awakened yesterday morning, Cade took control. He’d demanded no one have any kind of sex without him. He’d spent the day ensuring that both she and Carter were ready for a night of mind-blowing sex, and he’d given them just that.
After he’d taken Carter, Cade had been gentle and sweet, kissing and holding both of them as they’d fallen asleep, tangled in each other’s arms. Now she wondered if he’d really slept at all.
She had a vague memory of Cade kissing her forehead and pulling the covers up over her shoulders while it was still dark. When she woke for real, Cade was gone, and she and Carter were snuggled together, toasty under the covers. The bed felt lonely with just the two of them. How had that happened?
Christina had spent all of her nights in the big bed alone until two nights ago. Now she felt a hole because Cade wasn’t there. She knew she’d feel the same if it had been Carter. It wasn’t just a matter of Cade waking and coming downstairs before the others. There had been a finality about the way he’d left.
“I went outside when I saw him out there and tried to get him to come in. He told me go back to bed, that you would miss me if you woke without me. He said you loved me. I told him you loved him, too. He just gave a little smile and said to go to you. Then he went back to shoveling snow. You don’t think he’s trying to leave, do you? There’s no way he can get down the mountain today. There’s another storm front rolling in, and there’s more than a foot of snow. The drifts will be even higher.”
Christina’s throat tightened as she turned her attention to the big man shoveling snow outside. “We’ve lost him, Carter,” she whispered.
“Like hell we have,” Carter replied. “I need to go get dressed.” He kissed the top of Christina’s head before running up the stairs to get his clothes.
* * * * *
The snow was hanging heavy on the limbs of the giant ponderosa pines and aspen that surrounded the clearing where Christina’s cabin was nestled against the side of the mountain. Carter looked at the path Cade had shoveled and knew leaving was exactly what his bullheaded friend was trying to do. He thought there had been at least eighteen inches of snow so far, and he knew Christina was right—the road would be impossible to navigate, even in the big Hummer. Yet Cade must have spent the last two hours digging his yellow monster out from the snow and clearing the driveway. He couldn’t let Cade try it.
“What’s shaking, Cade?” he asked in their familiar greeting.
“Morning,” Cade returned.
“Shit, looks like you’ve been out here a couple of hours clearing this driveway. It’s fixing to snow again. Not like you to waste your time on something so futile. Why don’t you come inside and have some breakfast? Christina’s worried about you.”
“You’re right. I don’t waste my time on futile efforts. Why don’t you go bundle Christina off to bed, so she doesn’t worry? I’m fine,” Cade said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“You could come back to bed with us.” What this was all about? Was it the sex with him last night? Was Cade really regretting it already? He didn’t think so. It just didn’t feel that way. There was a touch of sad and a look of lonely that surrounded Cade this morning.
“Thanks, but I need to get this finished.”
“Cade, I can’t let you try to go down the mountain.”
“Carter, go inside. You know damn well this is where you belong. Don’t make this any harder,” Cade said. “I can see it in your eyes. You’re in love. You both are. Honestly, Carter, there aren’t any two people on the planet I want to be happy more than the two of you. Please, go to her and make her stop worrying about me. Go love Christina.” Cade walked quickly to the rear of the Hummer.
Two things happened nearly at once. The door to the cabin opened, drawing both pairs of eyes to Christina standing huddled against the cold. Before either man could tell her to get back inside, a sharp crack spilt the quiet morning followed by the distinctive crunch of crashing metal.
Carter saw the horror on Christina’s face for half a second before he whipped around. The rear of the Hummer was crushed under an enormous pine branch. The weight of the snow had become too much, and the ancient tree had bent beyond its capacity to recover. Somewhere under the mass of broken limbs, the ton of snow, and the crushed Hummer was Cade.
Chapter Eleven
Cade was stretched out on a soft pile of comforters in the middle of the living room floor. Carter had mostly watched as Christina stripped him from his wet clothes and covered him with the down comforter from her bed. It had taken Carter at least fifteen minutes to dig Cade out from under the snow and tree limbs, and his skin was still cold to the touch.
“We have to warm him,” she said. “Take off your clothes and get next to him under the covers. You’re bigger than I am, and you’ll warm him faster than I will.” Christina was bustling around, adding wood to the stove and putting large pots of water on the top to warm for the tub, if they could wake Cade.
Carter didn’t argue, his own clothes were wet, too, and he knew he needed to get dry. He stripped and climbed under the covers, pressing his body to Cade’s. She brought water and a washcloth to wash the blood from Cade’s temple. It was the only injury they’d found, but he still hadn’t regained consciousness, and he knew Christina was edging toward panic.
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, worry evident in her voice.
“I think so. He took a head blow, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I’m worried about how long it took me to get him out of the snow. Shit, I couldn’t move him.”
“But you did, Carter. If you hadn’t been here, he would have died. There’s no way I could have gotten him out of there without your help.”
“He wouldn’t have been out there except for me. If I hadn’t been here, he would have still been in bed with you, loving you. He was leaving us because he said we loved each other.”
“We love him, too,” Christina protested.
“I think maybe he heard the last part of our conversation last night, when we said we loved each other. He was leaving because he thought it would make us happy.”
&
nbsp; “Oh, Carter, that’s not what we meant!”
“I know. Now, help me turn him on his side. I’ll press against his back; you strip and spoon up against his stomach. It’s the most contact we can make with him. God, I wish we could call an ambulance,” he said.
They shifted Cade’s body and surrounded him with their warmth. Carter rubbed his arms and back, trying to speed the circulation. Finally, Cade began to warm, and his breathing took on a different quality, as though he was coming out of a deep slumber.
Christina felt Cade’s erection press against her back and smiled. That was her Cade, all right.
“Let’s shift him back. He’s definitely warmer and coming around. I want to call the emergency room and see what they say.” She pushed to her feet to find her cell phone.
The doctor was full of questions.
“Yes, his pupils are the same size,” Christina answered. “Carter, move your finger in front of his face, see if he can follow the motion.” Back and forth Christina relayed the messages before she finally got the worried emergency room doctor to give her the advice she’d needed to hear.
“Obviously, we’re concerned about concussion. We will assume he has one, since he was unconscious for so long. You said the skin break is small, and there doesn’t feel as if there are any major damage to the skull, but we can’t be sure without x-rays. It will be at least another twenty-four hours before we can get him down the mountain, and that’s if we can get a medivac helicopter up there. No one can fly in these whiteout conditions.”
“I know, Doctor, but what should we do for now? He’s awake, he wants some ibuprofen, and is generally being a pain in the ass.”
“Okay, watch for nausea or vomiting, loss of memory, or worsening of his headache. He may take the ibuprofen. Let him eat if he wants, but no moving around for twelve hours, no strenuous activity for twenty-four. Someone should wake him every thirty minutes for the next five hours, then you can let him sleep longer. Call me this same time tomorrow; I’ll be back on duty. If we need to try to send a chopper, then we can, but it sounds like from what I can hear, he’s going to be okay. Don’t hesitate to call though, if anything about the way he looks or acts feels wrong to you.”
