by Vivian Arend
Travis glanced at Cassidy. The other man stared slack-jawed as Ashley stuck out her tongue again and again, and worked that cone lewdly enough Travis was no longer so calm and relaxed as he’d been.
He slid his feet under the table and leaned back to ease the pressure off his cock as her lips closed over the top of the cone.
When she sucked, he forced down a growl of hunger.
“Hell,” Cassidy breathed.
“You enjoying yourself?” Travis asked, amused at the direction this was going. Feisty minx had an agenda, did she? He could work with that.
Her tongue flashed pink for a second as she licked a dab of cream from the corner of her lips. She gazed at him from under hooded lids. “Tasty, but something hot would be better than this cold stuff. Still sticky, though. I like sticky.”
“You’re pushing it, sweetheart,” Travis warned.
Ashley bared her teeth briefly before silently nibbling her way all around the cone.
Oh yeah. She was feeling troublesome tonight.
She popped the rest of the cone into her mouth and chewed, wiping her lips with her fingers before licking them clean. Cassidy had his elbows resting on the table as he stared unabashedly.
Travis wasn’t sure if he should be running for the hills again. Something had changed in a hell of a hurry.
Something big.
“I suggest a game.” She abandoned her chair and crawled right up on the table, sitting cross-legged halfway between him and Cassidy. “While we’re here and all alone. No holds, no limits. One night of fun between three friends, and nothing more.”
“I wondered how long it would take for you to turn this into something dirty. Not that I’m complaining.” Travis looked her over slowly as he spoke. “Strip poker?”
She waved a hand. “Takes too long, and I’m a card shark. You’d both be naked in no time…” Her eyes lit up. “Oh, well maybe we should play poker.”
“High-low,” Cassidy cut in. “Three cards dealt, whoever has the high card decides what the low card has to do for the next five minutes or thereabouts.”
Travis didn’t hesitate. “How far are we going with this? No limits leaves things pretty wide open, darling.”
Only he looked at Cassidy as he asked the question.
The man’s nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened. His hard-on was as obvious as Travis’s. “As long as we’re all enjoying ourselves, no limits.” He paused. Glanced at Ashley then nodded. “I’m in.”
Travis’s vision blurred for a second as the rush hit. It was partly her, partly Cassidy, mostly the insanity of the situation. Whatever manipulations had led to this moment, he was no fool. Tonight wasn’t going to be him and Cassidy only doing things with Ashley.
“I’ll have to see—I’m not very good at following orders,” Travis drawled.
Ashley slapped a deck of cards on the table. Folded her arms as if daring him.
He put his bowl and Cassidy’s to the side, picked up the cards and shuffled them one-handed. “I’m in.”
Her delight shone like a beam of light, and she reached for the cards. “Let me deal.”
“Uh-uh. You admitted you’re a shark.” Travis offered the deck to Cassidy. “She deals off the bottom. You? I trust.”
The layers of meaning in his message had Cassidy clutching the cards for an extra moment before nodding and pulling them closer. Ashley crawled off the table and into Travis’s lap, tugging his cheek so she could kiss him.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He caught her fingers in his. “You wait and see what you’re thanking me for. I’ve been saving up my wickedest fantasies since the last time we played this.”
Three cards lay on the table in a straight line. Ashley leaned forward and flipped over the middle one.
Deuce.
Travis chuckled. “Looks as if we’re starting the evening off right. Way to go.”
She stuck out her tongue.
“That’s right. My plans do involve your tongue, so get it all warmed up.”
She jabbed him in the side. “Pick a card, and stop procrastinating.”
Travis leaned over to the farthest one and turned up a jack. He grinned until Cassidy revealed the last card and beat him with a king.
“Well, damn. Okay, kids, what’s the show going to be?” He pushed enthusiasm into his voice he didn’t completely feel, but hey, it was part of the game, and the night was young.
Cassidy ignored Travis completely. Turned to Ashley and offered her a hand as she found her feet. He kissed her knuckles then gently stroked her arm. There was a whole lot more warmth between them than the previous day, and Travis shoved down the urge to get possessive and call the game off.
Only the next thing Cassidy said was unexpected, and suddenly Travis wasn’t sure what they were playing.
“Travis was right—you’re all warmed up for what I have in mind as well.” Cassidy turned her to face Travis and guided her to her knees, his hands tangled in her hair to tilt her head back. “Pull out Travis’s cock and suck him.”
There was no mistaking the shock on Travis’s face as Ashley reached for his zipper.
Cassidy’s heart pounded as his friend snapped himself back under control, a wide grin firmly in place as he slid his hips to the edge of his seat in anticipation.
Control—something Cassidy badly needed to find, and quick.
One day.
One day of accepting what he wanted. Accepting what had been pushed so far down for so long that he wasn’t sure he could set it free anymore.
But Ashley was right. This was the best time, best place, and if he was going to choose one chance to steal a moment—it was now.
Cassidy took a deep breath to steady himself, then turned to watch.
He’d fucked around with more than one set of partners in the room before. Had threesomes when the other guys on a ranch had brought women home and invited him to join in. Even the sex the other day with Ashley, though, he’d stuck to the unwritten rule. Don’t gawk. Don’t see anything but the woman being shared.
This time he let himself look at Travis. Really look. With his hands in Ashley’s hair, Cassidy had a front-row seat, standing over her as she pulled Travis’s cock free.
He was already fully erect, the head of his shaft rounded and smooth with precome glistening on the slit. Ashley held him at the base and twisted sideways to lick slowly from the bottom to top, her tongue leaving behind a streak of moisture on the thick vein marking the underside of Travis’s length.
She got him good and wet, twirling her tongue around the head, going back and forth over the sides of his shaft until his dick glistened in the light. Then she wrapped her lips around him and took him in.
Cassidy’s hands moved forward as Ashley dipped, and he widened his stance to let her move easier without letting her go. It brought his legs on either side of Travis’s, Ashley kneeling between them. Cassidy’s cock pressed the front of his jeans, raging hard and aching to have soft lips surround him as well.
Or maybe…not so soft.
Travis groaned in approval as Ashley worked him, sucking hard each time she drew back. Only Travis’s eyes drifted up from her mouth, and as pleasure streaked his face, his gaze lingered on Cassidy. On the hard-on that was partly from thinking of Ashley and partly Travis’s own fault.
One day—take the ride.
Ashley pulled off with a pop and smacked her lips in approval. “Better than any ice cream cone.”
“You’re stopping already?” Travis dropped his head back in exasperation. “Fuck, this game is gonna kill me.”
“Pull the right cards, and you might get lucky again,” Ashley teased. She kissed the tip of Travis’s cock tenderly then let him go, resting the hard length back against his belly, the edges of his jeans still unzipped and open. “I don’t think I can close your pants without hurting something.”
Travis fisted himself. “Damn right.”
She leaned on Cassidy’s legs to make him ease back,
then stood and kissed him. As her tongue slipped into his mouth, a shiver rolled up his spine.
That was Travis on her lips. Travis he could taste.
She pulled back and winked. She knew what had made him still. “Deal the next set of cards,” she instructed.
They’d talked about this. Planned it even, but every step forward took courage to continue. Cassidy waited as the cards were laid out, and this time Ashley got control over Travis.
He leered. “If you’re looking for a little licking, I’m game.”
Ashley pretended to ponder for a moment before shaking her head. “Not yet. What we need is some visual entertainment. I’d like naked, please.”
Travis rolled his eyes. “You’re playing with fire, sweetheart, but I’ll go along with it.”
He rose to his feet, reaching for his T-shirt.
Ashley held out her hand. “Not your clothes. I want you to strip Cassidy.”
All the regular sounds that usually faded into the background suddenly seemed extraordinarily loud. The fan in the kitchen, the hum of the refrigerator. The squeak of a tree limb against the hall roof.
Travis forced his cock back in his pants and did them up—putting on his armour? Cassidy waited to see if Travis would call the whole thing off right then and there.
He should have known better.
“Stand up,” Travis ordered. He turned to Ashley and pointed at the table. “And you, sit there. You asked for it, so enjoy the show.”
Travis stepped in close and caught Cassidy’s gaze. For a good thirty seconds he stared, and then that wicked grin of his broke free.
“Finally.”
Cassidy wasn’t sure how he’d keep his feet. Not when Travis slid a hand up his chest and fisted his shirt. “You rip my buttons off you’re sewing them back on later,” Cassidy warned.
A second hand in the fabric, this time on the left side. Travis leaned close enough his warm breath rushed past Cassidy’s cheek. “You know what? Not a threat. Not a fucking threat at all.”
He jerked his hands apart and buttons flew, landing on the floor with bouncing pings. Finding them all later would be an issue because Cassidy was caught staring into Travis’s storm-grey eyes as the other man snapped his shirt back off his shoulders, pinning his arms behind him for a moment as the fabric slid downward.
Bastard tossed the first layer to Ashley like a token. “Here, hold them for us.”
She wiggled on the tabletop. “You going to be all night about it, Travis?”
“I’ll take as long as I damn well please.” Travis snuck his fingers under Cassidy’s T-shirt, separating the fabric from his jeans and slipping his palm against Cassidy’s back. “Some things are meant to be savoured.”
“Savour faster,” she taunted.
Travis was right there, only inches away, the heat from his body increasing as he grabbed the bottom of Cassidy’s shirt and peeled it upward. As their arms rose, their groins brushed, and Cassidy clenched his fists to stop from rocking harder into Travis. From grinding them together to get more pressure on his needy cock.
A flick of the wrist tossed the shirt to Ashley, then Travis dropped his hands over Cassidy’s belt. Unbuckled it, pulling the leather apart. His knuckles were warm against Cassidy’s stomach as he slipped his hand into the waistline to hold on as the top button snapped free.
Travis’s fingertips grazed Cassidy’s cock as it reached toward his belly button. Slow, cautious friction as if Travis knew exactly what to expect as the zipper descended. There was more room for Cassidy’s cock now, but still not enough as Travis shoved his jeans over his hips and ground-ward.
“Whose bright idea was it to play games in the mess hall? He’s still got his boots on,” Travis complained.
Ashley rolled her eyes as she hopped off the table. “You’re such a whiner at times, Travis Coleman.”
She plopped onto the floor and caught the heel of Cassidy’s boot. “Get behind him, Travis, and brace him while I pull.”
Hard arms snuck around him as Travis tugged backward, and Cassidy ended up leaning on a solid mass of cowboy. Nothing but his boxers left as Ashley stripped off one boot and then the other, along with the jeans that had gotten stuck.
She vanished back onto her perch, and Cassidy was left in Travis’s embrace. A long, hard ridge pressed into his ass cheek as firm hands began a slow, tortuous exploration.
Lips brushed his ear, right before Travis whispered, “You have any idea how long I’ve wanted this? Any idea what this is fucking doing to me right now?”
Cassidy stared straight ahead, his heart ready to pound free from his chest. “If it’s anything like what’s happening to me, yeah.”
A small pause, barely there before Travis moved lower in his search. Tracing with palms and fingertips over muscles gone taut. Rubbing his thumbs briefly over Cassidy’s nipples, over the ridges of his abdomen. Softly tracing the line of hair and, holy fuck, following it under Cassidy’s boxers all the way to his cock.
When strong fingers closed around his shaft, Cassidy leaned his head on Travis’s shoulder and panted. “You so much as stroke me, and I’ll lose it.”
A second hand slipped over his other hip, also headed south. “Control issues,” Travis goaded. “I haven’t even got your boxers off.”
“Which I’m not happy about.” Ashley bounced to her feet and stood in front of them, her bright eyes shining and a sultry smile on her lips. “You distracted or something, Travis? You’re supposed to be undressing him, not jacking him off.”
“Just having fun. Feel free to help.” Travis caught hold of Cassidy’s balls, rolling them gently. “I’m busy.”
It took every ounce of control Cassidy had to hang on as Ashley eased off his boxers. She paused as the head of his cock came free and kissed the tip, tongue darting out to tease the head as Travis took advantage of having more room to deliver a slow upward stroke.
“Jesus. Stop it, you two.” Cassidy couldn’t keep the pleading from his voice. He stood naked in the mess hall, begging for mercy from the man he desired and the woman who’d teased her way into his senses.
Both of them ignored his request.
“Ashley, strip,” Travis demanded.
“You didn’t deal any cards,” she complained, but she already had her top off, wiggling her way out of the soft cotton pants she favoured over jeans. Nothing left but small triangles of fabric over her breasts and a scrap over her mound.
Not that Cassidy could see straight. “Fuck, Travis, I’m begging you. No more.”
“Plenty more,” Travis promised, but he stepped away and Cassidy snatched in air, bending slightly to get his balance.
Travis ran a hand over his ass, and more shivers arrived. It was insane and oh-so-good, and Cassidy was ready for anything, especially as a naked Ashley pressed herself up against him and raised her happy face for a quick kiss.
“What say we get Travis naked now?” she suggested.
“Hell of a good idea.”
They turned as one in time to see Travis toeing off his boots and kicking them across the floor. “Do your worst, but once we’re naked? I’m in charge.”
“Bossy bastard.” Laughter snuck out at the sheer pleasure rolling through Cassidy’s veins. “Come on, Ashley, let’s see if he can take it as well as he dishes it out.”
Chapter Seventeen
The game tonight might be enough to put him into an early grave, but what a way to go. Travis stepped into the open and waited for the naked people in the room to come torment him.
Only they started right where they were. Cassidy cradled the back of Ashley’s head and held her close for another moment as they kissed. Tantalizing flashes of tongue raised Travis’s anticipation as Ashley rubbed against Cassidy, her eager hands skimming down his back before caressing the firm muscles of his ass.
Cassidy repaid the favour and cupped her breast, rotating them sideways to give Travis a clear view of everything he did. His thumb and forefingers closed over the tip, and he rolle
d them lightly. Ashley let out a gasp, arching hard.
Travis hated to interrupt, but fuck… “You want to undress me, or should I go ahead and start without you?”
Two heads twisted his way, sunshine in their hair and dark passion in their eyes. “Someone’s feeling needy,” Cassidy commented.
“You take the left, and I’ll take the right.”
Maybe he’d felt like an ass for complaining a moment before, but it was worth it to be surrounded on either side and have two sets of hands on him. All Travis wore up top was a T-shirt, and it was already coming off, Cassidy using his higher reach to pull the fabric free and toss it aside.
Hot air was the only warning a split second before two sets of lips pressed to his skin. Travis shuddered as Ashley used her tongue along his chest muscle, rising up to twirl around his nipple.
Cassidy seemed enthralled. He drifted his fingers over Travis’s shoulder, pausing to kiss and bite lightly as he worked his way around to Travis’s back.
“That’s not getting my pants off,” Travis pointed out.
Teeth grazed his shoulder as Cassidy took a nip. “As if you’re pissed. Keep that bullshit up, and I’ll give you an instant replay of what you pulled on me.”
Oh, someone was feeling bossy? Maybe the response was irrational, but Travis whipped around and caught Cassidy, fingers tight in the hair at the back of his head.
Everything stilled.
Then Cassidy’s nostrils flared, and he had Travis’s pants unzipped in no time. “Said you were a bossy bastard. Looks like I was right.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Travis promised. “Take off my fucking pants, now.”
He might have made it an order, but they obeyed willingly enough, only he hadn’t expected them to kneel in front of him. For a moment he thought he might pass out as all the blood rushed from his head and straight into his cock. “Jesus, you’re killing me.”
Ashley grinned upward momentarily before working with Cassidy to haul jeans and underwear down all at one go. Travis’s cock snapped upright so quickly he looked like some kind of early warning system.
