Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro

by Kaitlin Maitland

  His shoes made a hollow noise on the steps as he took them two at a time and turned at the top. The exit was so close. Lars’s heart was hammering, not with the adrenaline of the fight but with the anticipation of being reunited with the two people who mattered. His gut told him everything was going to change, and for once that was a good thing.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Once they were in the alley outside, Owen stopped and bent at the waist to catch his breath. Demon and Malachi flanked him, obviously keeping an eye out for anyone who might have followed. Owen didn’t see Lars, and he was anxious to know that his partner had made it out after threatening to arrest an entire building’s worth of scumbags.

  “Owen!” The unexpected sound of Mattie’s voice made him straighten up so quickly his spine crackled.

  Stunned didn’t even begin to cover the feeling of seeing Mattie run up with Dante Torres and Jericho Davies. He was on cordial, but not exactly friendly terms with the owners of Asylum. What interest could they have possibly had in this situation?

  “I was so worried!” Mattie flung herself into his arms, and Owen gratefully scooped her up and held her close.

  Her scent, her feel, the taste of her lips when he kissed her, it made every single moment of the past few hours worth it. Owen buried his face against her neck and sighed in relief. He wasn’t even going to get after her for putting herself in the thick of it. He was too glad to see her to be mad.

  Dante’s drawl was tinged with laughter. “I think our work here is done, Jericho.”

  “Good, because I’m ready to prove to Suri we didn’t get hurt tonight.” Jericho gave Owen a nod. “I’m sure we’ll see you around at some point.”

  Owen swallowed back half a dozen sarcastic responses and went with something genuine instead. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

  Jericho cocked his head. “I know what it’s like to be scared shitless on behalf of someone you love. Considering the business we’re in, someday I might ask you for a hand.”

  “Done,” Owen said with no hesitation.

  Dante and Jericho disappeared as Lars navigated the dim alley. Owen sagged with relief. Lars looked a little more rumpled than usual, and Owen could see a bruise forming on one side of his jaw, but he was alive.

  Owen swallowed back his emotions, knowing this wasn’t the time or place. “My heart damn near stopped when you threatened to arrest the whole crowd.”

  Lars chuckled. “Little did they know this isn’t an Interpol case and I really didn’t have a leg to stand on. It’s all in the acting.”

  “Or stupidity,” Malachi added darkly. “Do you have any idea how pissed Selena would’ve been if you’d gotten yourself killed?”

  Demon made a low noise that might have actually been a laugh. “Send Malachi into a room full of bloodthirsty thugs, and he’s fine. Upset Selena, and he’s reduced to a quivering pile of emotional baggage.”

  Malachi looked indignant. “Hey! You’re no better.”

  “Just less obvious,” Demon retorted.

  Mattie tugged Owen’s arm. “Not to break up the party of manly hormones, but I think it’s time to go.”

  Lars jingled his truck keys. “Agreed.”

  “So we’ll see you back at Triptych,” Malachi said expectantly.

  Mattie immediately disagreed. “No, please, I want to go home.”

  Owen couldn’t refuse her anything she asked in that plaintive tone of voice. He swept her up and cradled her next to his heart. “Then let’s go home.”

  * * * *

  Mattie kicked off her sandals and drew her feet up onto the bench seat as she watched Lars’s headlights cut a swath through the darkness on their way to Danvers. She’d initially been surprised that in a world of the luxury vehicles favored by his peers, Lars had kept the battered pickup he’d driven since his youth.

  The dinged body was peppered with rust spots. It sported a roll bar in the bed and a brush guard on the grille. Plus, there was only room for three people. The way Mattie saw things, it was damn near perfect.

  There had been silence in the cab for almost the whole trip, but it was Lars who finally broke the stillness. “I shouldn’t have left this morning like I did.”

  So much had happened since then it took Mattie a few moments to catch up with his thoughts. After watching some gigantic lunatic who called himself the Terminator put a knife to Owen’s throat and seeing Lars announce himself as a cop to a legion of criminals, the unresolved relationship with Isabel Adams-Channing seemed pretty minor.

  Owen stirred from his contemplation of the road. “I already said I get it.”

  “I told my mother the truth today.” Lars’s chuckle had a note of hysteria to it. “By the time the night was done, I’d pretty well told her all of it.”

  Mattie felt oddly victorious in light of everything else that had happened. “How did she take the news about the cancer?” Mattie pulled a face. “I saw how gracefully she handled the discovery of our relationship. I hope the other was better.”

  Lars grunted, hands visibly tightening on the wheel. “Not really.”

  “Hang on,” Owen interjected. “Are you saying you two saw her tonight?”

  Mattie felt her cheeks heat up and was glad the guys would be unlikely to notice in the dim glow coming from the dashboard. “I might have crashed the fancy reception and made it impossible for Lars not to explain about us.”

  Owen looked from Mattie to Lars. “All of us?”

  Lars nodded. “Yes. And actually, she took that about as well as she took hearing that I’d had cancer and had been rendered useless in her baby-making efforts.”

  Mattie reached out and cupped Lars’s cheek. “Don’t say it like that. You’re not useless.”

  “I can’t contribute anything to the gene pool in this relationship.” Lars glanced over at the two of them, and Mattie wished there was some way to make him understand.

  Owen shifted in the cab and reached over to lay a hand on his shoulder. “If you hadn’t unraveled this mess tonight, I’d have been rendered useless by some dickwad who calls himself the Terminator.”

  Owen’s comment brought it all rushing back in stunning clarity. Mattie trembled, feeling an undeniable urge to prove to herself that Owen was still very much alive. She unbuckled her seat belt and turned toward his seat on the passenger side.

  “Baby, what are you”—Owen’s question died when she straddled him and began to kiss him in earnest. “Aw hell, baby. You’re making me hard.”

  Mattie ran her hands down his naked chest until she reached his waistband. “Good.”

  The truck swerved slightly as Lars tried to see what was going on. “Are you two trying to torture me on purpose?”

  Mattie reacquainted herself with the smooth contours of Owen’s pectorals. She touched his scars with a new sense of awe, realizing what each one had cost him. He gazed at her with dark eyes full of passion as she leaned down and licked each one of his nipples in turn. He tasted of salty sweat and man.

  “Help me,” she begged.

  He gave her a hand with her chambray shirt before lowering the straps of her camisole to bare her breasts. They ached with the need to be fondled, and Owen didn’t make her wait any longer. He cupped the twin mounds in his hands and drew them together until he could lap at them both with his tongue.

  Mattie found his elastic hair tie and slid it off so she could bury her fingers in the sleek mass. She pushed her breasts into his face, wordlessly asking him for more. He latched on to her right nipple and sucked hard until she could feel an answering pull between her legs. She’d never in her life been so glad she wasn’t wearing panties under her skirt. With her sex spread wide across Owen’s lap, she was wet and ready to take him.

  “Watching the two of you is incredible.” Lars’s voice sounded strangled, and he was panting for breath. “I’m going to die over here.”

  Owen’s powerful torso flexed as he scooted toward the middle of the seat. He let go of Mattie’s breast and reached into Lars�
��s lap. She heard the sound of a zipper being opened and then Lars’s groan when Owen’s hand wrapped around his lover’s hard cock.

  “Fuck yeah, Owen. Please,” Lars moaned as he struggled to keep them between the lines on the road.

  Mattie met Owen’s gaze. He gave her a smile full of promise. “Pull my dick out, baby. I need to be inside you.”

  His words almost undid her. Her pussy throbbed with need. She found his waistband and tugged at the button until it opened. Her nails grated against the zipper in her haste.

  Owen settled his free hand on her hip. “Relax, baby. There’s plenty of time.”

  But there wasn’t. Not in Mattie’s mind. She’d come so close to losing him, to losing them both because of her demands. She wanted that closeness, the wholeness, to chase away her fears and make everything right again.

  When she finally held his hot length in her hand, she couldn’t hold back the raw noise of desperation. She pulled her long skirt out of the way so she could ease down onto Owen’s thick erection. His head pushed through her swollen folds until it connected with her opening. Her spine tingled, awareness shooting through her limbs as he slipped inside her.

  The contact was sheer bliss. She began to rock her hips, gripping his bare shoulders and closing her eyes as she gave herself over to the sensation of sex. The rawness of the act filled the cab of the truck. Her world was reduced to the sound of Owen’s harsh breathing, Lars’s grunts and groans of pleasure, the slide and slap of Owen’s hand on Lars’s cock, and the wet noise of her pussy grinding against Owen. Nothing else existed in that moment.

  “Look at me, Mattie,” Owen coaxed.

  Her eyes fluttered open, and she tried to focus on his face.

  The power of his dark eyes was arresting. “Lean down and take Lars in your mouth, baby. He needs you too.”

  Without a single thought, she did what he asked. It should have been horribly awkward but wasn’t. Owen held her steady by the waist, twisting his body to keep his cock lodged in her cunt as she gripped Lars’s shaft and closed her mouth over its crown. The size of the vehicle helped as her head rested in the space between the steering wheel and Lars’s abdomen.

  He spurted a stream of precum onto her tongue. “I love your mouth, Mattie. I love everything about you. I love you…” He kept up the litany of words as she sucked and tugged on his cock.

  “Let go, Lars,” Owen urged. “Fill her mouth with cum so I can taste you when I kiss her.”

  The erotic request pushed Lars over the edge. The truck jerked as his foot slipped off the accelerator when he came. Mattie swallowed the sweet salty fluid he gave her, tickling the tip of his cock as she did.

  Owen pulled her roughly upright. “Now kiss me, baby. Let me taste you both at once.”

  She molded her mouth to his as she moved on his cock. He slid his tongue against hers, teasing, tasting, urging her to new heights as her hips worked in a rhythm older than time. Sensations washed over her body, and Mattie simply let them. She stopped trying to reach for the stars and let Owen take her there instead. No more desperation, just the warm knowing of fulfillment only a few breaths away.

  When the tingly feeling moved up her spine, she welcomed it joyously. She closed her teeth on Owen’s full lower lip, savoring the life she had with these two incredible lovers.

  “Come for us, Mattie,” Lars murmured. “Give Owen what he needs.”

  She exploded into climax just as Owen poured a stream of hot semen into her body. Their kiss ended as she threw her head back to let the powerful undulation of the contractions sweep her away. It was beautiful, perfect in its way, and only the beginning of everything she could feel was on the horizon.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Owen was having trouble remembering why they’d decided Mattie needed a bigger bed. He was perfectly content lying in the middle of the mattress with Lars and Mattie, their bodies entwined until he didn’t know where he ended and they began.

  Mattie threaded her fingers through Owen’s loose hair. He closed his eyes and savored her touch. She began to plait the length, caressing him as she did. The contact felt so good he didn’t care if she started braiding cornrows up there.

  “Owen.” Mattie’s voice roused him from near sleep. “I don’t know how you kept yourself from killing that awful man. He would’ve killed you if he’d had just a second more.”

  “That sort of violence is never a solution,” Owen told her quietly. “It’s just a new set of problems.”

  He couldn’t see her face, but he could feel the pregnant pause. “Have you ever killed anyone before?”

  Owen thought of his grandfather. Of what the man had suffered because of Owen’s terrible mistakes. “Yes.”

  Her fingers stilled against his head. “Tell me. Please? I want to understand.”

  In the dim light of the moon filtering through Mattie’s bedroom window, Owen couldn’t see his lovers’ faces. Lars’s hand found its way into Owen’s, squeezing in a gesture of solidarity that gave Owen strength. “When I was almost eighteen, I spent almost a year fighting in Jason and his grandfather’s little circuit. I was undefeated. I think it went to my head. Before I knew it, I’d beat an opponent to death just because the crowd demanded it.”

  Mattie wrapped her arms around him and snuggled close. Her position put her practically on top of both him and Lars. His lovers’ warmth was more than Owen had ever expected to feel.

  Owen scraped together the courage to continue. “The guy I killed—his family didn’t take it so well. They came to the house where I lived with my grandparents, demanding retribution. My grandfather went out to try and calm them down, and the guy’s father killed him.”

  The pain of that memory was an agonizing scorch mark on his soul. For the first time since the night it had happened, Owen felt the hot splash of tears on his cheeks. Had he ever grieved for the man who’d been more of a father to him than the one who’d sired him?

  “You didn’t embrace the violence tonight.” Lars’s low voice soothed Owen’s ragged emotions. “You offered mercy when it could have meant your life. That’s not the action of a violent man. I love you the same way I love Mattie, and I know you’re worthy of that.”

  Mattie lovingly nuzzled Owen’s neck. “Lars is right. I love you, Owen. I know in my heart you’re a good man. I want to spend the rest of my life building a family with you and Lars.”

  His heart swelled with a cresting wave of emotion so fierce it left him breathless. “I love you too, Mattie. And I love Lars. And I want nothing more than to make a family with you both.”

  “Then can we hurry up and get started?” Mattie asked eagerly.

  Owen didn’t need any more convincing. He rolled to his side and took her mouth in a long kiss, while behind her, Lars stroked the curve of her back and her delectable ass. She undulated against them, eager for more. Owen caressed her belly, letting his hand slide toward her bare mound. She arched toward the contact and spread her legs to give him access to her pussy.

  Lars reached around Mattie and fisted his hand in Owen’s hair. He ground all of their bodies together with a steady rhythm that made Owen want so badly to be inside his lovers. He slipped his hand between Mattie’s legs and discovered she was soaking wet.

  Mattie stirred within the sensual haze enveloping them all. “Lars, I want to see you fuck Owen’s ass. Please? I want him between us tonight.”

  A thrill of desire shot straight through Owen’s limbs at the suggestion. He’d dreamed of Lars penetrating his ass. Now he’d feel the sweet press of his lover’s cock while he sank balls-deep into Mattie’s pussy.

  Mattie disentangled herself from them both and reached into her nightstand for the lube. Owen’s belly knotted with anxious anticipation. It’d been so long since anyone had taken him from behind. He wanted it to be as good for Lars and Mattie as it was going to be for him.

  Lars reared back on his knees, his body bathed in moonlight as he waited for Mattie to smooth the gel on his cock. The sight of h
er working the slick fluid onto Lars’s taut skin was erotic. Lars groaned with the sensation of her touch. Owen’s fingers itched to join in, but he wanted to give them this bonding moment.

  Mattie stretched up to give Lars an openmouthed kiss as she stroked him from base to tip. Owen’s erection throbbed with need. His every thought was focused on his lovers. When Mattie pulled away from Lars and gestured for Owen, he wondered if he would last beyond the first stroke of Lars’s thick cock in his ass.

  He steadied himself on hands and knees, trying to fight back the last vestiges of his nerves. He wanted this. Had wanted it since the first time he’d made love to Lars all those months ago.

  Mattie spread Owen’s nether cheeks and slicked cool lube over his asshole. Her fingers played havoc with his senses. She dipped into his opening, stretching him, making him ready for Lars. Owen quivered at the pressure, savoring the first burn of her fingers when she pushed deeper inside and began to fuck him.

  Lars’s big hands settled on Owen’s hips. Owen grew ready for more as Mattie continued her onslaught. She added a third finger, reaching beneath his body to knead his balls at the same time. Owen shuddered as he fought the urge to come. His hips thrust reflexively, and he longed to sink inside Mattie’s welcoming warmth.

  Lars dug his fingers into Owen’s hips. “I’m going to put my dick inside you. I’ll try to go slow, but my control is shot from watching Mattie play with your ass.”

  At the first probe of the head of Lars’s cock, Owen forced himself to relax. The smooth roundness pushed past the thick outer ring of muscle. A thrill shot through Owen’s body as Lars tunneled inside his ass. He gained depth in steady increments until Owen could feel their sacs rubbing intimately between their joined bodies.

  Lars trembled. “Give him your pussy, Mattie, I’m not sure how long we’re going to last like this.”

  Mattie scrambled into position beneath Owen. He welcomed her with a kiss, tangling their tongues together even as she spread her legs and welcomed him deep inside her cunt. She was wet and slick. The slap of their bodies coming together punctuated the feeling of fullness he got from Lars.