Knockout: Tapped Out Book 4

by Quinn, Cari

  “I don’t know how to be that way anymore. Happy, I mean,” I murmured. “It’s been a long time, and I always end up looking over my shoulder. Waiting for the ax to fall that will take whatever good I’ve found away. So maybe that’s why I didn’t look for much. I didn’t want to lose it again.” I rubbed my hand over my sandpapery jaw. I hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. “But Lily was always my good. Always the one thing I’d give my life to protect.”

  “Oh Em,” Lily murmured, stepping forward.

  I held up a hand. “Let me finish. Please.”

  She nodded, glancing up at JC as he slid his arms around her waist.

  “But I can’t keep you under glass forever. I knew JC was trouble from the get-go.”

  JC chuckled. “You and my parents.”

  “Maybe he was the best thing that ever happened to us though,” I added softly, swallowing as my gaze locked first with Lily’s then with JC’s. “Without him, we probably would’ve danced around each other forever. Not wanting to hurt or get hurt.” I rubbed the stitch in my side from where Lubino had landed a punch earlier. “Not wanting to hurt your dad.”

  “He’s just going to have to handle it,” she whispered.

  Her conviction solidified mine. She was absolutely right. I would do everything in my power to convince her father that JC and I would take care of Lily—together. I hoped he would understand, but even if he didn’t, I couldn’t walk away from this.

  I nodded. “You’re right. He will.”

  Lily tipped back her head. “So I guess we owe JC a lot, huh?”

  JC nodded and stroked her hip. “You sure do.” He pressed a kiss to her temple and caught my eye again. “And I have the perfect idea of how you two can begin to pay me back. It’s going to take a while though, and a lot of…effort.”

  Shaking my head, I grinned. “I just bet.”

  “One thing you forgot though, freedom fighter.” JC’s smirk blazed through me, lifting my damn towel. He was at his hottest when he was most annoying, it was a proven fact. “Remember that love stuff? You can’t escape.”

  “I don’t want to. Ever.” I shut my eyes and waited for my breathing to become steady enough for me to speak. “I love you, Lily. With my whole heart and…”

  “He’s embarrassed to say ‘dick’,” JC said in a faux whisper, making her giggle.

  “All of me.” I exhaled. There weren’t perfect words, just the truth. “I even love JC.”

  Lily mouthed, “With your dick.”

  I repeated it without thinking, then shook my head. “Jesus, Lil.”

  JC waggled his eyebrows. “Hell yeah. Now that’s what I’m talking about. So let’s go inside and start doing some serious demonstrating.”

  Fourteen

  JC hadn’t been kidding about demonstrating.

  We’d barely made it inside Emerson’s front door when JC slid his hand down my shorts and found me wet and wanting in my tiny scrap of panties. In spite of wanting to back off this thing with them after last weekend’s scene with my dad, I’d worn barely there underwear tonight just in case, and I’d already soaked through it. First, when JC had dirty talked to Emerson after the fight, and then again while dancing at the club, and as we’d made our way upstairs from the alley.

  I knew what lay ahead, and damn, I was ready for it.

  “You’re gonna get nailed, little girl.” JC’s warm breath tickled the short hairs at my nape as his fingers parted my folds. “Like bent over the table and fucked senseless.”

  I shivered. Hot damn. While I surely didn’t have a problem with that, I had something else entirely in mind. At least to start.

  It was time for my two guys to see I could take care of them too by helping them get exactly what they needed.

  “You know, I have a better idea.” I moved toward Emerson and lowered my head to lick up the droplets of water still clinging to his torso. He tasted like rain.

  “Oh, yeah? What’s that?” He caught a handful of my hair and drew my mouth up to his. The kiss spun out, slow and sweet, his lips sliding sensuously over mine in direct counterpoint to JC’s renewed fingering between my legs. He’d wasted no time in following me and tugging down my shorts, tights, and panties, and he was now yanking up my top with his other hand.

  I gasped into Emerson’s mouth as JC found my clit and rolled it between his first two fingers. “I want you to be the filling,” I managed, bucking my hips into JC’s strokes while trying to simultaneously chase Emerson’s tongue.

  But he wouldn’t give it to me. He eased back and cocked his head. “You’re saying…”

  “She’s saying she wants you to fuck her while I fuck you.” JC leaned around me and fisted Emerson’s hair, dragging his mouth to his for a way hotter, rougher kiss than mine and Emerson’s gentle exploration. Lips mashed together and tongues tangled and damn, I would’ve moaned even if JC’s fingers weren’t still inside me.

  Slow kisses were all well and good, but the ache between my legs demanded some of that, please.

  Emerson reached down to snap off his towel, baring that glorious, fully erect cock for our eyes. Not that we had long to appreciate it, because he turned and headed down the hallway, motioning us forward with his fingers over his head.

  JC whistled. He had a point. The rear view was as gorgeous as the front.

  “Merry Christmas to you,” I teased him, slipping away and racing up the hall before he could grab me and exert his form of retribution.

  Problem was, I didn’t have far to go. I stepped into Emerson’s bedroom and had just long enough to glimpse the pretty yellow sheets before the light snapped off and I was being backed up toward the bed. Hands cuffed my wrists and heavy, hard bodies pinned me down as we rolled onto the mattress. I was surrounded. Overcome. Their scents enveloped me—cologne, soap, sweat. Rain. I could still smell the rain, and taste it as Emerson’s lips claimed mine in the darkness.

  I didn’t need light to recognize my lovers. I knew them by feel, by touch, by instinct.

  From love.

  They peeled away my clothes, then I helped JC shed his. Emerson slid over me, his damp, muscled body rubbing against me in all the right ways. His light scruff scraped my cheeks and chin while we devoured each other, and the thick press of his cock at my soaked opening made my hips rock. He wasn’t slipping inside me, wasn’t doing much of anything except letting me know he was there, and I was his.

  My swollen breasts and taut nipples brushed his torso as he moved down my body and JC moved up, switching places in perfect concert. JC’s callused fingers grasped my nipples and Emerson’s tongue slid slickly into my pussy, and fuck, I was lost.

  Eyes blind, hips already straining, I rose up under their dual assaults, grabbing onto whatever parts of them I could reach. JC’s overlong hair, Emerson’s thickly corded shoulder. I needed something to hang on to or else I was going to fall off the edge of the world.

  Emerson slid a finger into me, then two, and JC closed his lips around my nipple while he toyed with the other. That was all it took for me to fall apart. I cried out—I might’ve even screamed—and dragged my nails over Emerson’s neck and JC’s scalp, helpless to check my strength. Spasms ruled me, taking over my body. I couldn’t stop shuddering. New aftershocks sparked through me every time Emerson twisted his fingers, still deep inside me, and JC took in more of my breast, getting it wet then blowing light streams of air against my nipple that made more zings of sensation travel straight to my clit.

  I hadn’t come down from my high yet when JC eased away and Emerson took his place at my side. He brushed my hair away from my face and kissed me so tenderly that tasting myself on his lips seemed like an almost holy experience. I wanted to give that back to him. I wanted him to feel exactly like I did, like I was weightless and free and happier than I’d ever been in my life.

  “You ready to ride, man?” JC’s voice broke the stillness and we slipped apart, laughing. He grinned over Emerson’s arm, his eyes bright in the dark. “Because I sure am.”
/>
  “Eager,” Emerson muttered, shifting on top of me. He grunted as I wound my legs around his hips, eager myself. “Both of you,” he said, turning his head to kiss JC, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Because it was. I was the luckiest girl who’d ever lived.

  When they finally separated, Emerson slid his cock between my damp thighs, teasing me for a moment before he inched inside. The feeling without a condom was indescribable, just as it had been earlier with JC. I could feel every vein and ridge opening me up for his invasion. I whimpered and he pushed in farther, driving me up the bed. He grabbed my legs and hooked them over his shoulders, plunging so deeply inside me that I turned my head and bit the pillow to keep from screaming. Then he was lowering my legs again and looming over me in the dark, his chest heavy and delicious against my sensitive nipples. “Thighs around my waist again, sweetheart. Tight. Tighter. Ah, fuck, just like that.”

  The friction as he surged inside me had me rearing up to bite his shoulder, to run my hands over his muscled back. I reached down for his taut ass and squeezed, making a delirious noise as JC’s hot, bare cock brushed my fingers.

  “Fuck him,” I begged, shocked I could be using words like that. That I could be this wanton woman, spread open and being decimated by not one, but two lovers.

  And still, wanting more. Always.

  “On the agenda, babe,” JC murmured, rubbing his knuckles against mine. A quick hit of connection even in the center of madness. “You ready for me, man?”

  “Jesus, c’mon already.”

  Em’s words made me clench him deep inside and he rocked against me that much harder. “You’re a naughty little thing,” he breathed, his lips curving as we kissed.

  “Oh, hell yeah, I am.”

  “Seems like she’s in good company.” Even in the dark, I saw JC’s fingers curl around the back of Emerson’s neck. He stilled and then he groaned, long and low, the sound vibrating through my already pulsating body.

  “Ah fuck,” JC panted. “Goddamn incredible. You okay?”

  Em grunted. “Hell yeah. Again.”

  “Babe? You okay?”

  I mumbled something and bucked my hips, needing them to get this show rolling. I was so close to orgasm again, and knowing that JC was entering Em as I was being entered at the very same time was nearly enough to set me off.

  They found a rhythm quickly, and so did I. When JC plunged, Emerson did the same, his cock tunneling so far inside me that I couldn’t breathe from the fullness. I was tingling everywhere. Belly, nipples, clit. Even my freaking toes.

  “God, I’m gonna come,” I gasped.

  “Yes, yes, yes.” Emerson’s words were a chant in my ear as the two big bodies on top of me fell into a harmony that only stoked my need higher. I’d never imagined such pleasure could exist. Every time Emerson retreated, JC drove into him and propelled Em into my pussy again. I felt completely ravaged. Consumed.

  Lost.

  I couldn’t fight the climax pulsing inside my core any longer. It swept through me like a tsunami, knocking out everything but the thrill of having two groaning, powerful men finding ecstasy in each other and in my body.

  In me.

  “Fuck,” Emerson groaned, and I knew it was his turn. The feel of him expanding, lengthening, then that hot splash inside me as he bit my lower lip practically made me come again. If that didn’t do it, the sound of JC moaning through his own climax and reaching down to link his fingers with Em—and with me—definitely could’ve triggered another orgasm if I hadn’t been trembling and oversensitive.

  In more ways than one.

  JC rolled off Emerson, and Emerson rolled off me, and then I was staring up at ceiling, with sweat gathering on my skin and my thighs drenched from the best sex of my life.

  So why not burst into tears right then? Seemed perfectly logical.

  “Lil?” Emerson sat up and turned on the light. “You all right?”

  I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the brightness. And also still watering, because apparently, good orgasms made me leaky. “Yeah. I think I came too hard and dislodged something.”

  JC laughed and leaned over to kiss my belly. That it was so close to where Emerson had spilled himself inside me made me press my thighs together. He noticed, his smile turning into a leer. “She’s not too bad off, Em. She’s still turned on. Speaking of…” He leaned down and licked my cleft, making a sound that bordered on pornographic.

  He wasn’t the only one. Em and I weren’t much better, just knowing what he was tasting.

  So fucking dirty and hot.

  “Get up here,” Emerson growled, grabbing JC by the scruff as if he was a cat. “She’s crying.”

  “Not anymore I’m not.” I sniffled and dried my cheeks. “I’m officially horny again.”

  “Lil,” Em said gently, cupping my cheek. “You can tell us.”

  “It’s just a lot. So much.”

  “Too much?” JC asked.

  “No. It’s incredible. Amazing. God, I want more.” I was already reaching for both of them. “I don’t want to sleep tonight.”

  But somehow we eventually fell asleep anyway, exhausted and satisfied and happily tangled together on Em’s big bed.

  Until the sound of the buzzer caused Emerson to bolt upright. “Oh, shit.”

  I knuckled my eyes and lifted my head from its pillow on JC’s chest. He was still sawing them off. “What’s wrong?”

  “Buzzer.” Em grabbed the bedside alarm clock. “Damn, it’s morning.”

  I yawned and snuggled against JC. “So? Ignore them. They’ll go away.”

  He gripped my shoulder, and I glanced back, frowning. “Lil, it’s your dad.”

  My sleepiness vanished in an instant. I sat up and dragged my hair away from my face, squinting in the morning gloom. Last night’s rain had lent itself to a cloudy morning, though it was early. Of course it was early, because my dad always headed to work at the crack of dawn.

  “I called him last night.” I fumbled around on the floor for my clothes. “Told him JC and I were out dancing late so I was just going to crash at his place.”

  “He was cool with the sleepover?” Emerson was searching for clothes himself, digging through his drawers like a man possessed.

  “I don’t know if he was or not. He just growled and hung up.” I found my bra and put it on, then tugged on my top. “Why’s he here?”

  “I invited him.”

  I stopped pulling down my top. “What? Why?”

  Emerson yanked on his jeans and blew out a breath. “Okay, I didn’t exactly. I called and asked to come over so I could—” He hesitated. “So I could tell him about us, even if we were through.”

  “You thought we were through?” I whispered.

  “Moron,” JC muttered from behind me, grabbing a pillow and sending it sailing.

  “I didn’t know after what had happened at the club, okay? But now he’s here, and I have to talk to him. We have to talk to him.” He gave me a long look and left the room. My dad was still leaning on the buzzer.

  Lance Matthews never gave up without a fight.

  “He’s serious, isn’t he?” JC asked with a sigh.

  “Very.” When JC grabbed my hand, I realized it was shaking.

  “Hey, hey. It’ll be okay.” He curled his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close to kiss my hair. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

  A few minutes later, we walked out to the foyer to join Emerson. JC had his arm around me still, and I clutched his waist. Emerson was speaking quietly to my dad, but all conversation ceased when we stepped into the hall.

  “Lily,” my dad said stiffly.

  “Daddy.” I fumbled for the necklace at my throat. It had been given to me by my mother, and most of the time, I forgot it was there. The little ballerina on the chain had been a replica of one of my first dolls. Another link to my past, and my future.

  Just like Emerson and JC.

  “So you’re with both of the
se men.”

  The bald statement threw me off. I started to move away from JC, but he held fast. And Emerson moved to flank my other side.

  My silent sentinels, always ready to do battle for me. But it was time I stand up and fight for them too.

  “Yes, I am.” I slipped my hand into Emerson’s and squeezed his fingers tightly. My other hand gripped JC’s waist. “I love them both, and they both love me. And…and…” This would be the stickiest point for my conservative father. Tied with the whole my-baby-girl-has-two-boyfriends thing, I was sure.

  “And we love each other too,” Emerson finished. “JC and me.”

  “That so?” My father crossed his arms over his barrel chest. He wore his uniform, and the badge hooked on his belt seemed particularly mocking.

  Any moment now, I was going to lose my father, within twenty-four hours of gaining the best two men I could’ve ever wished for.

  JC nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s so.”

  “Lily?”

  I took a deep breath. “Yes, we’re all in love, and we’re all together, and we’d like your blessing, but if you can’t give it, I’m not giving them up. Mom fought for everything. She fought to have me, and that afternoon, she fought for her life with those men.” I heard his intake of breath, saw the flare in his eyes so like mine, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. “She fought every day, and I didn’t. I haven’t. I’ve just let you and Em wrap me up tight. But now I’m going to take care of them. Both of them, just like they’re taking care of me.”

  My father’s jaw locked. “Oh, I can just bet.”

  Heat rushed into my face. Okay, not the best choice of words. “I want to take care of you too.” I eased away from them to inch closer to my father. “I want to help you move on. To date. Maybe you could find someone to—”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’m not going to discuss it. I’m not moving on from your mother. She’s the only woman I ever loved.”

  “Then you understand where I’m coming from,” I pleaded, searching for some crack in his icy façade. “These are the only two men I’ve ever loved.” Ever would love, but I wouldn’t make that declaration now.