Cardinal's Rule (40 page)

Tilly’s entire body trembled as Cris brought her close to the brink. Her hands fisted his hair, almost painfully, and he welcomed it. She held on tightly as he slowly licked her clit, her body vibrating beneath him.

Landry softly murmured encouragement to her. It suddenly struck Cris this had been his plan all along.

I’m a fucking dumbass.

He’d deal with Landry later. For now, he wanted every second he spent between her legs spent focused on her and her pleasure. She moaned and writhed beneath him as he drove her toward release.

Landry kissed her. “Come for me, baby girl. Let it happen.”

She cried out as her grip tightened on his hair. He wondered if he’d have bald spots by the time they finished and realized he didn’t care. He stayed with her, wringing every last drop of pleasure out 

of her until she lay trembling on the bed. Her fingers eventually loosened and fell away.

When she rolled toward Landry, who gathered her into his arms, he climbed up the bed to lie

behind her. Finally meeting Landry’s gaze, he didn’t miss the satisfied smirk his lover wore. He glared at Landry, to let him know he figured out his game. Landry’s smile brightened, beaming, and Landry blew him a kiss.

Cris closed his eyes and shook his head, struggling not to laugh.

Damn Doms anyway.

* * * *

Tilly lay there in Landry’s arms with her eyes closed, trying to process what happened. She felt Cris change position and fought the urge to snuggle into his body.

What did this mean?

So many years spent in pain, hating him, loving him.

She chose to remain in Landry’s arms, letting him hold her.

He stroked her cheek. “Love?” he softly said. “Are you all right?”

“Let me get back to you on that.”

She felt him kiss her forehead. “You’re so beautiful. I love you so much.”

When she felt strong enough to deal, she opened her eyes and looked at him. Beautiful green

eyes. She read worry there. Maybe he wondered if he’d finally pushed her too far.

She rolled in his arms, her back securely pressed against Landry’s chest, and stared at Cris without speaking. He also looked worried. “Was this your plan?” she asked him.

Landry answered first. “No, love. He was as shocked by my suggestion as you were.” He

nipped the back of her neck, sending a shudder of pleasure through her and making her gasp. “You were growing increasingly angry. I worried things were reaching critical mass, as it were. I needed to find a way to break through your pain. I’m sorry. If you’re angry at anyone, be angry with me, not Cris.”

She hugged his arms tighter around her. “You said his name.”

“In this case, I think the three of us need to talk as equals, no?”

“Yeah.”

Cris silently watched.

She stared at Cris for a few minutes. “What am I supposed to do with all this emotional garbage rolling around inside me? Tell me that.”

Cris caught her hand and kissed her fingers. “I’m so sorry. I’ll do whatever you need me to do to make it up to you.”

Part of her wanted to let go of her pain and rage. Part of her didn’t know how to.

She didn’t pull her hand away. That was a start, in her book. Using him as a cuckold for sexual pleasure while making love with Landry, and allowing herself to enjoy Cris the man were two separate things.

Although using him as a cuckold still left her with a sour taste in her mouth.

“Do you want me to send him out?” Landry asked.

“No.” She stared into Cris’ eyes. “I want to watch you fuck Cris,” she told Landry.

She didn’t have to ask twice. In one smooth movement, Landry left the bed and quickly

stripped. Cris also stood and removed his clothes before he silently climbed into bed, where he lay on his stomach.

Landry grabbed the bottle of lube from their bedside table and slicked himself before drizzling some over the seam of Cris’ ass. Her eyes never left Cris’ as she lay beside him, close but not touching.

She didn’t know why she asked this. All she knew was she wanted to see it.

Be a part of it.

Landry slid home, making both men gasp. He gave Cris a moment to adjust before he started

thrusting. “How would you have me fuck him, love?” he asked her. “Hard and fast, or should I make it last a while?”

Cris didn’t break eye contact with her. “Make it last a while,” she told him. “I want to see how you make love to the man, not the slave.”

She moved closer, her face inches from his. He struggled to maintain control, his breath tight and shallow as he tried to hang on and not come.

“Don’t come,” she whispered to him.

His eyes widened a little, but he didn’t look away.

Tilly kissed him, tentatively at first, before she let herself go just a little. He eagerly kissed her back, his tongue thrusting between her lips, finding hers, stroking it.

Landry caressed his back, his thrusts long and slow, hesitating at the bottom of each stroke before withdrawing to leisurely plunge inside him again.

She reached under Cris and found his cock, hard and already leaking pre-come. “You want to

come for me?” she whispered in his ear.

“Please!”

She made him sit up without letting Landry withdraw. Climbing under Cris, she grabbed his

cock and placed it at her slick entrance. Cris looked happily shocked.

She didn’t miss that Landry looked pleased.

“You want to come, you do it inside me.”

He kissed her as he sank his cock inside her, holding still as he dropped his head to her shoulder and moaned. “Oh, Tilly, Jesus I love you, baby.”

She wrapped her arms around Cris and looked at Landry over his shoulder. “Fuck his brains

out,” she ordered.

Landry grinned. “Your wish is my command, love.” He grabbed Cris’ hips and started pounding

into him, a punishing, brutal fuck, the sound of his balls slapping against Cris’ ass at the bottom of every stroke filling the room. The entire bed shook.

Tilly grabbed Cris’ hair again. “Do you like feeling his cock in your ass?”

“Yes!”

“Then come for me and show me.”

He cried out, his hips barely thrusting again before she felt him throbbing inside her. Landry felt it too as his ass muscles clamped down on his cock, and he finally let go and climaxed.

As they all fell still, Tilly didn’t release her grip on Cris’ hair. “If you ever come home without my cola again when I’ve put it on the list, I’ll take a cane to your ass myself,” she muttered before biting his ear.

Even as he yelped in pain, he laughed, Landry joining him. She finally released his hair and he lifted his head to meet her gaze.

“I love you, Til.”

She stroked his cheek and felt tears in her eyes. “I love you too, Cris.” She pulled him back down to her, this time to kiss him, tenderly. Her pain dissolved in a rain of tears as she clung to him and sobbed.

At some point Landry left the bed to clean up, and Cris rolled to his side with her in his arms.

“Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Anything to make it up to you, I swear it. I only want to make you happy, baby.”

Eventually she settled down and lay there. It struck her Landry hadn’t returned to the bed. “I don’t know what I need from you right now. I’m probably going to swing between loving and hating you for a while yet.”

He kissed her. “Whatever you dish out, I’ll take it. Anything. Whatever you need.”

She stared at him. “I need time.”

* * * *

Cris’ demeanor changed. Landry let protocols drop for the day as Tilly took her first tenuous

steps toward their new life. Landry offered nothing but his love and support, knowing that with this first connection made, only good could follow if he remained patient.

At bedtime, he prayed she would reach out to Cris, and she didn’t disappoint. They’d watched a movie on the couch together, Tilly laying with her head in his lap and her feet in Cris’. When she sat up and announced she was heading to bed, she turned to Cris and softly said, “There’s room for three, if you want.”

Landry resisted the urge—barely—to cheer.

He also resisted the urge to tackle her on the bed despite his screaming cock. She pleasantly surprised both men by undressing before kissing Landry, then Cris, and laying back on the bed, waiting for them.

They made love half the night, straight vanilla sex without any dominance dynamic of any kind.

By the time they exhausted themselves, Tilly quickly fell asleep between the men, her back tightly pressed to Landry’s chest and Cris’ hands clasped in hers.

Landry looked at Cris and smiled. “Happy?” he softly asked.

Cris still looked stunned, shocked. “Yeah.” He smiled. “You’re not jealous?”

“The two loves of my life have finally reconciled. Why would I be jealous?”

Cris smirked. “You finally get to be poly, you sneaky bastard. It’s what you always wanted

anyway.”

“Are you complaining, love?”

Cris stared down into her peaceful, content face. “No. I’m definitely
not
complaining.”

Chapter Twenty-One

At the one-month mark following the end of his last round of chemo, Landry’s doctor looked

pleased. “I’ll see you in six weeks. Then after that I think we can move to every three months.

Landry closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief as Tilly squeezed his hand. “Thank you,

Doctor,” he said.

Cris smirked from the other side of the exam room, where he stood leaning against the wall, his arms casually crossed over his chest. “I sense a celebration.”

Landry looked at him and grinned. “You bet your ass.”

“Literally,” Tilly snarked. Since the reconciliation, as she thought of it, she’d finally found a comfortable dynamic with Cris. Landry eased up on the Master stuff in some ways with Cris, still having that dynamic with him outside of bed, but inside, they were three lovers without labels.

Cris slept with them in their bed every night, except when he had to fly out to L.A. for business.

Then the old Landry emerged, and Tilly welcomed the chance to let go and submit to him.

Maybe one day she could enjoy that dynamic with Landry around Cris, but she needed time to

get to that place.

It was a Friday, and later that night they went to the club. Landry persuaded her to wear her school girl outfit. As he scened with Cris she sensed a carefree joy in Landry that she’d never witnessed before.

Even Cris, despite the walloping he took, seemed happy and at ease. Watching Landry scene

with him, she realized, made her wet. Not entirely because of Landry, either. There was something delicious in watching Cris take it, knowing he enjoyed it as much as Landry did.

Thinking about how they could pin her to the bed and melt her will before fucking her brains out without being her “masters” only amped up her own need.

Her heart raced. She would be the happy recipient of a really good, hard fucking times two

when they got home.

She couldn’t wait.

Loren leaned in close. “You three look happy tonight. Even Count Craptastic.”

She hadn’t yet confided in her friend about their change in relationship status. Pulling Loren aside into one of the private alcoves, Tilly closed the curtain. “Promise me you won’t yell at me. Or punch me.”

Loren frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Well, for starters, Landry got a clean bill of health this morning.”

“That’s good, right? So what’s wrong?”

Tilly had put this off, concealing their change in relationship dynamic from Loren. “I’m sort of together with Cris again.”

Loren stared at her, stunned. “By together you mean kicking the shit out of him every morning, right?”

Tilly shook her head.

Loren swore. “After what that fucker did to you, how can you even think about letting him

touch you?”

“Because Landry was right. I never stopped loving him. You know that.”

“Can’t you send him a Hallmark card? Do you have to let him back into your heart?”

“I’m stronger now, Loren. He’s not my Master or my Dom. He’s just…Cris.”

“What about Landry? He loves the hell out of you.”

“And I love him. That doesn’t change.”

Realization struck. “Oh, fuck me, you went poly. Honey, are you sure you want to do this to

yourself?”

“I’m not leaving Landry, and he’s not leaving me. No matter what, we’ve always got each other.

If Cris decides to leave, that’s his problem. I’m tired of trying to pretend I don’t have feelings for him.”

Loren sat on the padded bench in the room, mulling it over. “What are you asking me to do

here, Til? I can’t be nice to the sonofabitch yet. I can barely stand looking at him, unless it’s to watch Landry beat the crap out of him. Which I enjoy the hell out of, by the way. We should sell tickets, we’d make a fortune.”

“I’m not asking you to like him, or even like what I’m doing. I just want you to support me as my friend.” She tried to find the words. “I feel complete. Finally. Lan’s never tried to make me submit to him.” She wouldn’t tell Loren about the birthday celebration. Some things were best left unshared.

“He loves me and I’ve healed with him. It actually makes this easier, being with Cris, too. My jealousy’s totally gone. It feels right loving both of them. I don’t seriously think I can ever go back to being Cris’ slave, but I feel safe and secure with Lan. It’s like having my cake and eating it too. For the first time since Cris left me, I really feel happy again.”

Loren let out a melancholy sigh. “I can’t judge you. I didn’t walk in your shoes and I hope to god I never will. Promise me you’ll let me kill the bastard if he hurts you again.”

“I promise you’ll get first crack at him if I leave anything left.”

Loren stood and hugged her long and tightly. “Please be careful,” she said. “Please don’t let him hurt you again.”

“He won’t. He still loves me, too.”

“Funny damn way he had of showing it.”

Tilly smiled. “Don’t worry, Landry and I got our pound of flesh out of him on our wedding