Gemini (17 page)

She trembled and started to jerk as she gave herself over to it. She cried out, a steady wail that rose in pitch and volume. Distantly, she heard the two men cursing, growling. Their hands turned bruising, their thrusts frantic.

They all came together, an explosive, devastating shared orgasm that made them crazed. Their bodies clenched and shook, spasming in ecstasy. Gemini felt their release as they blasted into her, filling both her ass and pussy with their cum, adding to the heat, slicking their last thrusts into her.

They all quaked and moaned for long minutes, aftershocks coursing through them. The men both cursed, words of wonder and praise and…love.

Gemini found a hand from each of them and laced fingers, clutching them tight. “Clay. Quinn.”

“Baby.”

“Sweetheart.”

“I didn’t know that could happen.”

Quinn lifted their entwined hands to brush her face. He gently pulled out of her and kissed her lips. “I didn’t know, either. That was incredible, honey.”

Clay wasn’t as much the gentleman. He left his cock in her ass, kept her held against him with a hand at her belly. Gemini found she didn’t object. To her surprise, she liked that base, gritty symbol of ownership. And liked it, too, when he nuzzled into her ear. “I love you, babe.”

She smiled, still clinging to both of them, her lips still curved as she fell into sleep.

Clay drove Gemini to Jace’s office before his evening shift. He touched her at every opportunity—keeping her hand in his as he drove, his palm warm at the small of her back as he guided her through the downtown building to Jace’s legal suite.

It had been the same with both Clay and Quinn when they’d finally left her bed that morning. The men had fallen asleep with her, each of them laying claim to her in some way—fingers tangled into her hair, an arm wrapped around her waist and holding her close. Then, as they’d made breakfast and eaten, always there were touches and intent gazes, firm connections that signaled their attachment.

With a long, sweet kiss, Quinn had left to work the lunch crowd at the bar. Having a date that night, Gemini told Clay she needed to shop and quite enjoyed his reluctant indulgence as he took her to the Promenade. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, determinedly ignoring the acute interest of both shoppers and store staff as she found the perfect little sheath in shimmering turquoise at Ann Taylor’s. Watching him watch her while he pretended he wasn’t the focus of acute female attention was so much fun that she found she had to look in both Soma’s and Victoria’s Secret to find just the right undergarments.

Then he turned the tables on her. He drove them to North Tejon, parked at his condo and walked her down the street to Jack Miller’s jewelry store. There, she stood waiting while he shopped. And when he took her up to his loft, he peeled her clothes off—using mostly his mouth—until she was naked. Slowly, he dressed her back up with their purchases. He started with his—a fiery gold pendant that hung sensually between her breasts. He held it there at her neck as though to fasten it, but then let it slide down and over until it bumped against her nipple.

He took it in his mouth then, both the nipple and the piece of jewelry. He suckled and tongued her, using the sharp edge of gold and stone to stimulate her. She was needy, breathing roughly when he lifted up to look at her. Watching her intently, he slid the pendant over to her other nipple and gave it the same erotic treatment.

Both nipples were red and tingling with need when he finished. But he was far from done with her. His gaze on hers, he dangled the necklace by its chain and let it slide between her breasts down the center of her body, past her navel, until it hovered at her clit. He left it there long enough for her to understand what was going to happen next. Then he knelt and made love to her clit with the jewelry and his tongue. Time and again, he took her to the edge of climax—and left her there.

He was wickedly, creatively erotic. He pushed the necklace, chain and all, into her cunt, and used his fingers to rub the pendant into her most sensitive spots. With his fingers breaching her, he held the pendant inside while he slowly pulled the chain out and worked it back and forth over her clit.

Then he moved to kneel behind her and played with her with even greater wickedness.

He left her bent over, nearly collapsed, and panting, wildly overstimulated and yet unfulfilled. She heard him run water in the bathroom, and when he came back to fasten the necklace around her, it was still warm from its cleansing.

With clear regret, he set himself to covering up those places he’d used and abused. He started with the sexy heels she’d bought at Francesca’s—black with big velvet bows at her ankles. Then her panties and bra, and, finally, that tightly fitting sheath. When he was done, he gave her one last kiss—over the pendant that was suspended just right at her plunging neckline.

It was a wicked exhibition of ownership. He’d stimulated her with his mouth and his tongue and the necklace, keeping her exquisitely needy, hovering at but never letting her fall over the edge of climax. He’d dressed her. Now he was taking her to another man. She would go with Clay’s necklace at her breast and her body craving his.

The feral satisfaction of it shone in his eyes when he was done with her. She was wobbly on those high heels when he put his hand on her bum and moved her toward the door.

And when they were shown into Jace’s office, his hand was exactly in that same place.

Jace sat behind his desk, suited up and handsome as could be. He looked up from his computer but stayed put where he was. His gaze roved over Gemini, and she felt sure he understood it all—the significance of her only piece of jewelry, the possessive hand on her ass, and, very likely, the barely suppressed agitation of sexual frustration.

His eyes were still on her when he spoke. “Thanks for bringing her, Clay.”

It was a dismissal that Clay took his time about acknowledging. His hand on her ass kept firm possession, and he nudged her chin up to turn her face to his. “Bye, baby,” he said. The satisfaction in his eyes let her know he was aware of the frustration that simmered below her surface.

He was at the door before she stirred enough to remind him to be careful out there.

* * * *

An hour later, Jason put his hands flat on the desk and pushed back, eyeing the stubborn woman across from him. “You have a legal right to his money. California’s alimony laws are complex, but they take into account compensation for physical and emotional abuse.”

“I don’t want his money.”

“You deserve it, Gem. The man is very wealthy. You shouldn’t have to live off a bartender’s pay when he’s, like, Midas.”

“I’ll go back to work as a midwife as soon as I get my license here. I can live just fine on that salary.”

Jace was totally glad to hear her making plans to stay in the state, but that wasn’t the point. “He deserves to pay for what he did to you. Imagine making him suffer every month he has to write a check to you.”

“I don’t care whether he suffers or not. Mostly, I’d like to disappear from his life and have him never think of me again. And I’d like to never think of him.”

“What if it turns out you are pregnant with his child?”

“I’m not.” Gem grasped the arms of her chair and blushed a little. “I just had to borrow a tampon from your assistant.”

She’d gotten up and excused herself shortly after Clay had left her. He remembered thinking women sure took longer in the restroom than men did.

“A lot of women have some bleeding in early pregnancy, don’t they?” As soon as he spoke he wanted to bite his tongue. “I mean, even if they don’t miscarry.”

He could see pain in her eyes, but she suppressed it. “That’s true. But I’m pretty sure this is just a normal period.”

Hell
. He supposed it was ungentlemanly to complain even only in his head that she’d get her period just when he’d decided that his battle to resist hitting the sheets with her was a lost cause. “You’ll do a pregnancy test, just to be certain?”

“Sure.”

“Um…do you need anything else? Ibuprofen?” He had a stash in his drawer.

She smiled. “No, I begged some of that, too.”

It wasn’t much of a smile. “Are you relieved?” He’d have thought so, but he was having trouble reading her.

Even a trace of the smile was gone. “Mostly. Of course.”

He tilted his head. “Mostly?”

She took a breath and looked at him levelly. “I’m very glad I’m not pregnant with Bryce’s child.”

Jace kicked back further in his chair, watching her. “You’re saying you’d be happy to have Quinn’s baby, or Clay’s.”

Her gaze was still steadily on his. “Or yours.”

Yeah
, the chance had been there. He just hadn’t put a slam dunk effort into it like his pals had. “Don’t you think it would be better to wait until we sort of work out where this”—he lifted his hand in the air—“
whatever
—is going?”

“This ménage.”

Jace’s brows rose. “We have a ménage?”

“It seems like it, doesn’t it? And I’m really not expecting it to ‘go’ anywhere.” She wiggled her fingers for quotation marks. “I love Quinn and Clay. I probably am going to love you, too. I think you three expect that eventually I’ll choose one of you. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Wow
. “So…you can see us all together and happy as a foursome?”

She lifted a shoulder. “I can’t see me saying no to any one of you. If you don’t want in, or Quinn doesn’t, or Clay…you’ll have to say so.”

“You say it like that’s a normal thing.”

Gem shook her head. “I don’t think it’s normal. I never would have thought that was where I’d be going when I walked into Mach One. It’s just where I am. It just
is
.”

He huffed a breath out. “It seems crazy.”

Gemini nodded. “Understood. But what really seems crazy to me is how much I lost myself in order to keep Bryce happy.
Really
,” she said. “I lost myself. I don’t see that happening with any one of you. Or with all of you.”

“The three of us have always been very possessive about any woman we’re with.”

She smiled wryly. “And I expect you still will be—outside of the ménage.”

“You keep using that word.”

“I know. It’s weird, isn’t? To be thinking of it, I mean.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Weird.” But the more he thought about it, the more it appealed.

* * * *

Jason took her to the Broadmoor for dinner and then to his home. There, they danced out on his deck, under the stars.

He was a very sweet date. His attention always was fully on her, even as several women they ran into—staff at the resort or acquaintances who were guests there—made subtle or blatant efforts to flirt with him. He treated her as though she were the only woman in the world for him.

And held her that way as they danced. He gently kept her close with one hand at her back. With his other hand, he clasped hers and held it against his chest. His blue eyes held steadily on hers.

“You’re very beautiful, Gemini.”

She smiled. She’d basked in his attention through the evening, all the while reminding herself that probably a number of the women they’d met had been treated in exactly the same way. He was charming—and possibly a bit of a player. “Thank you, Jason. I’ve had a lovely evening.”

He smiled wryly. “That was kind of an indirect response.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not the first woman you’ve said that to out here on your deck.”

Jace nodded. “That’s true. You’re not the first.” He dipped his head down and touched her lips with his. “What would be significant would be if you’re the last. And that
is
the first time I’ve said that.”

Gemini lifted her hand from his shoulder to touch his face. “You’re a very hard man to resist, Jason.”

He smiled again and turned his lips into her palm. “Why would you want to resist, Gem?”

She wondered if she should. It was easy to trust Quinn—he was a good, pure-hearted man who would be true to his death. Clay was edgier—he might not give his heart forever, but while he did it would be fully, all in.

Jace was different. He could seduce a woman, make her feel the center of the universe for him, but still hold some part of himself back. She suspected he never gave his heart away. But she looked into those blue eyes, dark now with only starlight, and sighed. Take what she wanted, she’d decided. It would be cowardly to stop now. So she shook her head. “I guess I really don’t.”

He kissed her again, a soft, sweet meeting of lips. And then a mating of mouths, deeper, intimate. He tasted of wine and a dark, male element.

Pulling her closer, he made her aware of the heat of his body, the hard thrust of his erection. Slowly he danced her to the far edge of the deck and pressed her back against the rail. He had his hands free then, and he used one to bare her breast. Gem moaned as he squeezed her nipple. Then he opened the fly of his slacks and brought his hard dick out. He wrapped her hand around it and pressed back against her, enclosing his cock and her hand between their bodies.

Jace took her mouth and her breast again and moved his free hand under the hem of her dress. Sliding it up her thigh, he found her clit.

He had her then, nipple and clit, and she had him. Rocking against her, stimulating both of them, he took them to quiet, urgent orgasms.

After, he used a handkerchief to clean her hands and then walked her into the house. He poured two glasses of wine and clinked them together as he handed one to her. They both sipped and then shared another wine-flavored kiss.

With a gentle hand at the small of her back, he took her upstairs. He stopped her outside the guest bathroom.

“There are some supplies in there, if you need.”

She lifted a brow, not sure she wanted to use his last girlfriend’s tampons.

“My sister and her two teen daughters spent a couple weeks here in April. Trust me, there were some moments of it I didn’t exactly enjoy.”