by Roma James
“But it wasn’t just her. We had—have—a son together. Raised him for the first two years of his life. And then…” He swallowed hard and took a deep breath, then waited several more seconds before he continued. “And then during the divorce proceedings, it came out that Timmy—our son—wasn’t mine. I’m not his father.”
I felt my mouth drop open. I was shocked. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, and I wanted so badly to reach out and hug him, but I was frozen in place. “Wow, Prescott,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
He took another deep breath as he scrubbed a hand down his face. Finally, he turned back to look at me and tried to force a smile, but I could still see the sadness in his eyes.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you asked. I would have had to tell you eventually.”
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me.” I reached out and put a hand on his leg. I wasn’t sure if he was ready for a full-blown hug yet, but I couldn’t stand not comforting him at least a little. “I know that had to be hard. I can’t even begin to imagine what you must have gone through during that time.”
Something like that would have made anyone hesitant to jump into another relationship—especially one that was as unique as ours. Now his reluctance and insistence that we take things slowly was finally starting to make more sense.
“It was tough,” he said. “Really tough. And the worst part was that after the truth came out, I didn’t have any legal grounds to see Timmy again. I wanted to—still want to see him so bad—but she took him away from me. That poor kid never did anything wrong. He had no way of knowing why I was there one day and gone the next. I never got a chance to say goodbye.”
His voice cracked on the last word, and that was it for me. I was out of my chair and had my arms wrapped around him before I had time to think.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered again, holding him to me as he took several shuddering breaths. I didn’t know if he was crying and I didn’t dare look. Just the thought of him in tears was making my own eyes well up. But I knew he needed me now just as much as I’d needed him over the past several days. “That’s awful. She sounds awful. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
I kept hugging him until I could feel his breathing return to normal, then stepped back and eased myself down onto my own chair again. He looked away and dashed at his cheeks quickly before turning back to me.
“Falling in love is easy,” he said. “But falling out of love? I hated it. Yeah, she did some awful things, but I’m not proud of some of the things I said and did during our divorce, either. It’s why I guess…” He paused, then shrugged. “I guess I was sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop when I met you. You seemed… well, perfect. Too good to be true. I kept telling myself nobody is that good—or if they are, they wouldn’t want anything to do with a guy like me.”
“And now?”
His lips curled up into a genuine smile this time. “I still think you’re perfect. And I still think you’re crazy for wanting to be with me and my boneheaded buddy.” He quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. “Is that it? Are you crazy? Is that the fatal flaw?”
I laughed. “Maybe I am. I’m definitely not perfect. But I think we make a good team—you, me, and Cole. I want to keep going. I want to be with both of you. I want that more than anything.”
“Well, you beautiful, amazing, crazy woman.” He winked. “You’ve got us. We’re yours.”
I moved over and hugged him again. This time, though, he stood up and hugged me right back, picking me up off the ground and planting a quick, sweet kiss on my lips.
Neither of us was perfect, that was for sure. And maybe we were both a little crazy. But we fit together really well. That part was undeniable.
And when Cole was with us?
It was as close to perfect as I could get.
I jumped out of my seat when the knock at Prescott’s door finally came that evening.
“Should I get it?” I asked, belatedly looking over as Prescott laughed. “Sorry, I was just…”
“Excited to see someone?” He winked. “I couldn’t tell. But yeah, you’d better let him in before he busts the door down. I’m sure he’s just as ready to see you.”
We’d spent a really nice afternoon and evening together. Prescott had cooked for me—not barbecue this time, but some deliciously tender steaks instead. I had initially insisted on waiting until Cole got off work so we could all three eat together, but Cole had called to say he was running a little late and that we should definitely eat without him.
And since Prescott had already been badgering me about keeping my strength up and not overdoing things, I went along with it.
Plus, if I was being totally honest, those steaks smelled too good to leave sitting for very long.
I crossed the living room and opened the door. I didn’t have time to get a word out before I was swept up in Cole’s arms. He looked as sexy as always in his uniform, and after our subdued, emotional goodbye earlier that morning, all I wanted to do was kiss him.
So I did.
Our lips met and he seemed a little surprised at first. The initial shock didn’t last more than a second, though. His tongue entwined with mine as his hands skimmed down my back and cupped my butt. My whole body melted against him and God, it felt good.
“Wow,” he said, grinning from ear to ear when I finally took a step back and reluctantly ended the kiss. “I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but I hope I do it again real soon.”
I laughed. “I’ve missed you. That’s all. I think Prescott even missed you a little.”
“Don’t believe her,” Prescott said, smirking as he watched us from a distance. “I was just saying how peaceful it’s been around here with you at work all day.”
Cole snorted. “I’ll bet.” He looked at me and winked. “You’ve probably been bored to tears, huh?”
I laughed again and shook my head as I motioned for Prescott to come closer. “You guys are too much. And no, I wasn’t bored at all, for the record. We had a really nice time today.”
“Oh?” Cole quirked an eyebrow and then stole another quick kiss. “Should I be jealous? I was wondering what you two might get up to while I was at work.”
“Nothing to be jealous of,” Prescott said with a shrug. “Other than the usual, I mean—looks, personality, job performance… did I mention looks?”
Cole playfully punched him in the arm once Prescott was close enough, but I stepped between them and rolled my eyes. “Are the two of you going to tease each other all night when you could be kissing me instead?”
Their eyes went wide for a moment, but neither of them needed any encouragement after that. Cole was on one side of me, kissing my neck, while Prescott moved in to capture my mouth.
Yes.
This was what I’d been waiting for all day.
This was one of the many reasons why I’d had such a hard time letting go of my perfect, sexy guys.
Cole stepped back and tugged at the hem of my shirt, but Prescott stopped him.
“Wait…” he said, his voice low and thick with desire as he focused his gaze on me. “Is this okay? Are you—”
“Yes,” I answered before he could even finish asking. “I want you both. Now. Tonight.”
I could actually see the burst of heat in Prescott’s eyes as he jerked his head toward the hallway. “Bedroom,” was all he had to say.
I was pretty sure my feet didn’t even hit the floor as they carried me pressed between them back to Prescott’s bed. We’d left a trail of clothing from the front door to the bedroom door, leaving me in just my bra and panties as they eased me down onto Prescott’s feathery soft mattress.
“Jesus, you’re so fucking beautiful,” Cole said, stepping out of his uniform pants as his eyes roamed over me. He was already shirtless, and now that he was just in his tight black boxer briefs, I could clearly see the outline of his large erection straining against the thin material.
“So sexy,
” Prescott added, joining me on the bed in just his boxers. His hard cock pressed against my leg as he leaned in to kiss me. “Tonight is all about you, baby. We’re going to make you feel so good.”
“That’s right.” Cole nodded, reaching out to slide my panties down my legs as I reached behind to unfasten my bra. “You tell us what you want, and we’ll do it.”
“I want you inside me,” I answered, stretching out completely naked in front of them. I turned to Prescott and added, “And I want to taste you. To suck you.”
I’d never been so blunt and upfront about what I’d wanted in bed before, and I would have normally been too embarrassed to say the words out loud. There was something different about being with my guys, though. I wasn’t ashamed of what I wanted. They didn’t make me feel bad or self-conscious at all.
They made me feel sexy and beautiful and wanted.
And then, just like they’d promised, they made me feel good.
Really good.
Both men were out of their underwear and completely naked with me within just a couple of seconds. Cole pulled me to the edge of the bed until my legs were hanging down as Prescott moved toward my head, helping me prop myself up until his thick, hard cock was bobbing just inches from my face.
A clear drop of pre-cum had already pooled at the slit, and I opened my mouth without even thinking, my need to taste him overriding all of my other thoughts. He shifted his weight and brushed the head of his cock against my lips, that sweet, salty droplet spreading across them.
“Mm, you taste so good,” I said, sucking my bottom lip in to get more. “Better than I imagined, even.”
“You’ve been thinking about sucking this cock, hmm?” he asked, pressing it forward until my lips parted and I took the head into my mouth. I couldn’t answer him with my words, so I sucked deeper as I looked up and met his gaze. “Oh, fuck,” he groaned. “Just like that, baby.”
Between my legs, Cole had been teasing my most sensitive spot with his fingers, dipping in and out of me before parting my slick folds and teasing some more as he used his free hand to roll a condom down his thick shaft. I closed my eyes and moaned as Prescott’s thick cock hit the back of my throat while Cole lined up the head of his cock with my entrance.
Both of them filled me completely, sliding in and out in time with each other, their hands holding me in place and caressing my body with each stroke.
I was moaning like a porn star, but I didn’t care. They were doing this to me. They were making me feel this good.
They were tender and sexy and so, so hot at the same time—telling me all of the hot, dirty things they wanted to do to me but still giving my body time to adjust to each sensation.
“Fuck, baby,” Prescott groaned. “Seeing you swallow my cock like that…” He pulled all the way out until just the head was resting on my tongue, then slowly pressed forward until he was hitting the back of my throat again. “You’re gonna make me come, baby. Gonna make me come so hard.”
“Me, too,” Cole growled. “This pussy… so fucking tight. So hot… I can’t… I don’t think I can last much longer.”
I still couldn’t speak past the mouthful of cock, but I trusted they would be able to tell from my moans and the way my body reacted that it was exactly what I wanted. Just the thought of the three of us coming together nearly pushed me over the edge.
“Almost there,” Prescott panted, pulling his cock from my lips and stroking himself as my head fell back and a loud moan escaped my lips.
“God, yes, please,” I whimpered, the words spilling from my mouth. “Need you… need both of you.”
I couldn’t even speak in complete sentences anymore, but it didn’t matter. They both already knew what I wanted, what I needed.
“Fuck, oh, fuck,” Cole cursed as his hips slammed against me. “I’m… coming… now.”
I felt his cock grow even thicker inside me as his orgasm overtook him, then felt the first hot jets spill out over my breasts as Prescott joined him.
It was too much. It was sensory overload. I was hot and shaking and felt like I might float off the bed as my own orgasm rushed through me.
My vision blurred and I cried out, reaching for my guys.
They were right there, though, moving to either side of me and pressing their bodies against mine as they held me.
“So beautiful,” Cole whispered.
“So good for us, baby,” Prescott added, kissing my cheek gently as I started to come down from my intense climax. “We’ve got you.”
“We’re not going to let you go.”
It was all I needed to hear. And I was right where I needed to be.
Chapter 13
Prescott
The call from dispatch came in before I’d even finished my first cup of coffee. Hell, the sun had barely even come up over the horizon. But instead of our normal sleepy start to the day in Bliss, Cole and I were speeding down bumpy dirt roads to Nora Statler’s ranch.
“And you’re sure it wasn’t Nora that was injured?” Cole asked as we pulled up in front of the big house.
“Not unless dispatch was mistaken. But they specifically said ‘white male, late forties, early fifties.’ And how likely is it that someone would mistake Nora for a middle-aged man?”
“True,” Cole conceded. “I just wonder who it could be?”
I parked the patrol car and opened the door. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
Nora popped up just on the other side of a small compact car as soon as we stepped out of our vehicle. “Sheriff! Thank God! Over here, quickly!”
Cole and I ran over as she waved frantically. It was the first time I’d ever seen Nora without any makeup on, and her face was streaked with tears. In those slow-motion moments during an emergency call, the mind sometimes goes to absurd places. In that moment, I thought it must really have been some kind of crisis for the normally put-together Nora Statler to be outside her house like this.
And then I saw the blood on the ground.
We got to the other side of the car and Cole gently moved Nora out of the way while I knelt next to the victim. He was breathing, but just barely. His head was bleeding from a wound in the back, but that was the only visible injury I could see.
I’d done my cursory visual examination so quickly that it took me a moment to actually focus on the man’s face. Cole must have been doing the same thing from a distance because I heard him suck in a sharp breath behind me.
“Sheriff,” he whispered. “That’s—”
“Our acquaintance from the USGS,” I finished for him. “Isaac Bishop.”
“How did he get here?” Cole asked Nora while I used my radio to get an ETA on the ambulance. “Why was he outside your house at dawn?”
Nora instantly bristled at the question. “Excuse me? Is it against the law to have a friend over?” She turned to me, and her expression softened as her eyes filled with tears again. “Is he going to be okay, Prescott? Where is the damn ambulance?”
“They’ll be here any minute,” I said. “I just got off the radio with the paramedics. They’re going to get him stabilized and take him to the hospital.”
She heaved a ragged breath and clung to Cole’s arm even though she’d just been shooting daggers at him with her eyes moments before. “My poor Isaac,” she murmured. “I don’t even know how this happened. I had offered to walk him out, but he didn’t want to trouble me. It wouldn’t have been any trouble, though. He’s always so thoughtful like that, just a gentle soul.”
“Did you hear anything?” I asked. “Did you happen to see anyone or anything out of the ordinary when you came out here and found Isaac?”
“Anything aside from Isaac’s poor body on the ground, you mean?” She huffed out a short breath and dashed at her eyes. “No. I didn’t see anything. I only heard his voice as he called out. By the time I got out here to see what was going on, he was like this. Lifeless. Bleeding.” Her eyes focused on me again. Her expression was a mixture of anger and pain—un
derstandable, since those were often the first two emotions a person went through after the initial shock and trauma of an emergency like this wore off. I’d never seen someone alternate so quickly between the two, though. “Just tell me he’s going to be okay. Please just tell me that much.”
It was a promise I couldn’t make.
Thankfully, the ambulance roared into the driveway before I was forced to say anything else, and the question was forgotten as the paramedics rushed out and took over.
“I want to go with them,” Nora said. “I want to ride with him to the hospital.”
“There isn’t room in the ambulance,” one of the paramedics said. “We need to get him stabilized. He’s lost a lot of blood. There could be swelling on his brain.”
Nora looked like she might faint. I made eye contact with Cole and nodded toward the front door of the house. “Let’s get her inside.” Then, to hopefully calm her nerves a little, I added, “We’ll check on Isaac as soon as we can. We won’t know anything until they get him to the hospital.”
Once we got her inside, Cole helped her to the sofa, and I went to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. From where I was standing at the sink, I could see there were still uncleared breakfast dishes on the table—two plates with scraps of bacon and eggs, two mostly empty glasses of orange juice, silverware and napkins.
But it was everything else on the table that really caught my attention.
I walked over, nearly forgetting about the glass of water in my hand. There was a map in the middle of the table that looked an awful lot like the one we’d seen in Isaac’s office downtown. There were handwritten notes scrawled on scraps of paper scattered over the rest of the table—numbers, coordinates, dollar amounts, dates. It was too much for me to make sense of in the moment, but it obviously had something to do with Isaac’s visit.
I didn’t have a warrant and wasn’t there to dig through Nora’s personal documents, but I still took out my phone and grabbed a quick photo of the map and the notes. It might not be admissible as evidence in a case, but it was still definitely worth looking into.
