Away (21 page)

Jeff slid off to the side, pulling Alex with him, sandwiching her between him and Devon, his softening cock still inside of her. She reached up to touch his face then dropped her hand behind her to touch Devon. She closed her eyes, her breathing slowed, and she drifted into the sleep of the exhausted.

Jeff raised his head and looked at Devon. “It’s like she’s never been gone, Dev. She responds to us just like she used to.”

He couldn’t talk about her gentle touch on both of them. It felt too precious to put into words, though he knew Devon hadn’t missed the implications of it either. She never forgot to include them both, and it was rare that they took her separately.

Devon quietly replied, “I still think we need to paddle that fine ass of hers some more, but I want to wait and see what the doctor says about any risk to our kid.”

He froze for an instant. “God, Jeff, our baby. We get her back and a baby to boot. Doesn’t feel real.”

Jeff reminded him, “Alex hasn’t agreed to anything yet, Devon, and we had better listen to her this time. She did try to talk to us before about Stephan, but we weren’t listening. Our egos were hurt, and we threw her to that wolf. I doubt she’s forgiven us.”

Devon shook him off. “She’s ours, and she’s coming home. We aren’t leaving without her no matter what it takes, so man up, Jeff. You know we are what Alex needs, and we aren’t living without her anymore. Done deal.”

Jeff shook his head and kept any further cautionary statements to himself. Alex would wake, and then they’d all see. But that gentle touch gave him hope.

Devon looked through the contents of the fridge, frowning in dismay at the meagre pickings. What in hell had Alex been eating? There were a couple of apples, a package of almonds, and a part-quart of milk. The sliver of cheddar wrapped carefully in the original store wrappings hardly counted. A cursory search of the cupboards turned up a nearly empty box of Cheerios and a box of soda crackers. He turned as Jeff came into the tiny kitchenette, wearing boxers just as he was.

“She awake yet?”

“Nope, and I don’t have the heart to wake her any earlier than we have to either,” Jeff commented. “She doesn’t have to work today, and she’s got to be exhausted after the seven days she just put in, according to her boss. And we tired her out last night.” A smile of memory flitted across his face.

Devon waved his arm toward the fridge.

“Well, when she does wake, we’re taking her out for some actual food. Pregnant, on her feet ten hours a day, underweight, poor as a church mouse. I want to choke her and hold her all at the same time. How long do you think it would have been before she would have told us? Asked us for help at least?”

Jeff shook his head. “I don’t know, buddy, although I’d like to think she’d have said something before she had the kid! We’d better find out who that doctor is and go see him today. I want to know just how she is health-wise and”—he locked eyes with Devon—“just what we can and can’t do in bed.”

“And out of it,” Devon added.

* * * *

Jeff knew that neither he nor Devon needed to talk further about their raging need for this woman, their Alex. They figured they knew what had happened that night at the Club, hell, even the week prior to the event, but she needed to tell them. They needed to hear it from her lips and ensure that they understood, but more so that she understood
them
. If it took breaking all her barriers down again to prove how they felt about her and also show her their willingness to own what had happened, well, they were up to the task. It might prove emotionally painful for all of them and a bit painful for Alex physically, but the rewards would be far greater than any discomfort.

Jeff pivoted back to the bedroom in time to see Alex push up to a sitting position in the bed. He wished he could have had her tied and spread for them. He wished she had woken to find herself at their mercy, him making a meal of her pussy this time while Devon made those fine breasts sing. Her nipples had to be more sensitive with pregnancy, and he had dark, erotic thoughts about that. But they’d pushed it last night, what with her being pregnant, and good things always came to those who waited.

Alex stared at him warily. She pulled the sheet closer over her breasts in a gesture that broke his heart then infuriated him. Jeff closed the distance to the bed in one stride and pulled the cover away from her.

“You never cover yourself in front of us, Alex. Never.”

His harsh comment and expression caused Alex to tremble, and Jeff was again pierced by emotion. What the hell had happened to their Alex? She had never been afraid of either him or Devon. Sure, there were times when they had punished her for unacceptable behaviour, but the pain had been erotic, and she’d begged for more. He suspected her current reaction was a result the emotional pain they’d inflicted on her, and he chafed at the need to put off the little “talk” they were to have with her. Sooner than later, he hoped.

Devon spoke from the doorway. “Get up, honey. We’ll get you bathed and take you for breakfast.”

“I can shower myself,” Alex mumbled.

Devon chuckled. “I’m going to make some allowances for now, my sweet, because maybe those hormones are making you resistant, but I said we would bathe you, and that’s what’s going to happen.”

* * * *

Alex’s traitorous vagina was instantly bathed in moisture at the sound of the dominance in Devon’s voice, and her nipples defected, too, stiffening in reaction. She bit the inside of her cheek and somehow managed not to whimper. Devon’s gaze traveled up and down her naked body, darkening and heating. Jeff looked like his mirror image. She retreated before them into the bathroom.

“I need to use the toilet. I’d like some privacy.”

“No. No modesty, Alex,” Devon grated. “Get on with it so we can run the bath.”

Alex sat on the toilet and put her head in her hands. She felt Jeff’s hand stroke her hair and the back of her neck. It had to be Jeff. He was the softer of the two in many ways and tended to comfort her in situations when her boundaries were pushed. She wiped and flushed, all the while avoiding their eyes, and stood to wash her hands.

“Alex.” Devon’s voice pulled her to look at him. “There is nothing you do, nothing about your body that doesn’t belong to us, nothing that would offend us. Just as we thought you felt about us.”

Alex flushed, remembering their casual toilet habits around her. They were totally comfortable in their own skin and bodily needs. She had quickly understood that it was because of the strong connection between the two, leaving no room for false modesty or boundaries, and had found herself shedding her reserves and gaining a sense of freedom that amazed her. They had even inserted tampons for her, for heaven’s sake, and rubbed her belly when the cramps were bad.

Jeff lifted her into the bath Devon had started. He helped her slide down and sit. His hair was still damp from an earlier shower. She hadn’t even heard them get up and use the bathroom.

Devon picked up the little bar of soap and lathered the threadbare washcloth. He began to wash her feet and moved slowly up her legs, taking care to wash every inch of her. Jeff scooped water over her shoulders, soaping his hands and gently washing her breasts and upper body. She groaned with the care and comfort of their hands.

“Scrunch down, honey,” Jeff said.

Alex complied and sank her head into the water, keeping only her face above water level. Jeff then pulled her up and squeezed shampoo onto her hair, gently scrubbing at her scalp and sliding his fingers through the strands.

“We’ll be changing this shitty color back to your own, Alex. And you’ll be growing it out, too.” Jeff made this pronouncement without pausing in his massaging motion.

Alex opened her mouth to challenge his autocratic statement, but was distracted by Devon’s soap-slippery fingers parting her labia. He slipped a finger into her vagina, and she clamped on him.

Devon made a dark sound of mirth. “You can let go, Alex. Breakfast first.”

She nearly ground her teeth but forced her muscles to relax as he stroked in and out. And suddenly was on her stomach in the bath, in a wild swishing and swirling of water, Jeff supporting her head with an arm under her chest. Devon parted her buttocks and lathered her from anus to clit, cleansing the folds of her vulva. He pushed against her puckered rosebud with a thick finger, eyeing the rim of pink visible through the soap foam.

“Jesus, Alex. Your body hasn’t forgotten us, even if your mouth wants to hold us off.”

Alex pushed back into his touch, involuntarily moaning.

Jeff laughed and said, “I’ve got something for that sassy mouth, Devon. Hell, we both do, and maybe that’s what we give her each and every time she talks back. She’ll be on her knees a lot.”

Devon removed his finger, and Alex trembled, this time with anger. Devon would recognize her arousal and resentment at being denied. She wasn’t afraid anymore, she couldn’t be when aroused, so that’s where they would plan keep her. Aroused, on the edge, making her confession, telling them what went wrong and what she needed from them. She watched Devon reach into his shaving kit and pull out a safety razor. He dealt with the curls on her vulva efficiently, rinsing the soap and hair away as he worked. Alex held herself rigid against his ministrations in silent mutiny.

She fought to stay still as the men helped her to stand and turned the shower on to rinse her then wrapped her in the towels that had come with the apartment, as poor an excuse as the washcloth. She could sense their anger about the paucity of her circumstances, but she wouldn’t apologize or explain. She had lived just fine by herself these past months, gotten by without them and the luxuries of life. Her head came up, and her shoulders squared at the thought.

Jeff held her at arm’s length. “And there’s a bit of our girl, Dev. She just got pissed for some reason. Alex is coming back to us. Do you suppose she has a temper?”

Alex compressed her lips then breathed through them. “I’d like to get dressed now. I’m hungry.”

They seemed to move as if electrified. Jeff found a sports bra and pulled it down over her head, fitting her breasts into it as though he had done it all his life. Devon held her weight on his hip as he lifted her foot to slip one side of her panties on, shifting quickly to the other foot. Both men pulled her briefs up to her waist, hands meeting over her abdomen, pressing gently against the baby bump.

“Cotton panties, Alex. We shouldn’t be letting you wear panties at all. But cotton…” Jeff teased her gently. “I guess a bra will be necessary. You are already a bit larger than I remember. Babies do that, eh?”

Alex just stood there, keeping her own counsel. A little voice in her head told her to pick her battles. Besides, she’d never gotten dressed this fast in her life, and she
was
starving.

A T-shirt followed the bra, though Jeff hesitated with the fabric over her eyes, and she knew he was off in his head, thinking about blindfolding her, enhancing her other senses for sexual play. However, he moved on, just as Devon repeated the panty process and pulled her sweats on. Her socks were slipped on next, and she was allowed to toe the sneakers on all by herself. She was definitely going to pay them back.

Chapter Eighteen

Breakfast at the diner was surreal. The staff vacillated between intense curiosity and hostility directed at Jeff and Devon. They sat in a corner booth, Alex sandwiched between them. Annie relaxed when she saw the care they took with her, ordering her a healthy breakfast and offering her tidbits from their own plates. Max, the owner, blustered at them for a while then backed off at their civility. He even blushed when they thanked him for giving Alex a job and helping to take care of her. Alex was pretty sure no one spit in their food in the kitchen either. Part of her branded her friends as traitors, but another part wanted them to like her men. After all, when she started to show pregnant, it would help if Annie and the rest saw her not as a single mother, but that her baby actually had caring, interested dads. Even if she had run away from them.

Devon and Jeff excused her from the diner, explaining they were taking her to the doctor. Annie’s brow creased with suspicion, and then she smiled widely. Alex sighed. She hoped the door would actually close behind them before the gossip and speculation started.