How to Love (25 page)

“Oh yeah,” Mike gasped. “Fuck, yeah.”

Carlos reached above Mike for the headboard, grabbed on with both hands, and Mike’s hands slid up and down Carlos’s sides then reached for Carlos’s ass with both hands, lifting him and letting him sink back down onto his cock.

Jules licked her lips, watching avidly, hungrily, and when Carlos rose up, back onto his knees, she reached for his cock, thick and throbbing.

“Yeah,” Carlos groaned, his head going back. “Touch me, Jules.”

She bit her lip and reached down with both hands, one on Carlos’s shaft, pumping, the other teasing his balls, so firm, the skin so delicately soft. Her heart banged in her chest and her breathing went uneven, the dark room filled with the sounds their bodies moving together and their low grunts and groans of pleasure.

“Like that,” Mike moaned. “Just like that.” His hand came to rest on her low back, sweeping down over her bare butt then back up.

“God, Jules, you’re amazing,” Carlos said.

She
was amazing? She’d done next to nothing except watch them with awe. They were the amazing ones. Her throat tightened and her eyes prickled with emotion. She focused on her hand on Carlos’s cock, slick with the lube he’d used earlier, stroking and pulling, palming the head, so smooth. Mike’s thighs tightened, his abs contracted. His fingers dug into her hip.

“Gonna come,” Carlos gasped. “Fuck me, Mike. Jules…” With one last pull, he erupted, one, two, three hard jets onto Mike’s belly, then more hot semen running over her fingers. He cried out.

Mike gave a shout too, his head back as he came inside Carlos. Jules laid her head on Mike’s chest, her entire body pulsing and aching.

She could have cried. She had no idea why, but emotions inside her ran so close to the surface she felt near to tears at how beautiful that had been. Several moments passed, silence but for the sounds of their harsh breathing. Mike’s hand rubbed up and down her back in a slow, sensuous motion.

She felt Carlos moving off Mike then lying down beside him. When a hand came to rest on her hair, she thought it was his, lightly rubbing her head. She turned her head to look up and saw both men regarding her, their expressions warm and with almost as much awe as she felt.

“What?” she whispered.

Carlos sighed and Mike’s eyes closed briefly. What was wrong?

“Ah, Jules,” Mike finally said. “You’re killing us.”

She still didn’t know what she’d done, but it seemed like it was good rather than bad, so she let out a long slow breath as Mike reached for some tissues and swiped them over his abs. She shifted on the bed to stretch out beside him and they lay together in warm drowsy silence, all of them touching each other in some way. Jules still ached with need, but the satisfaction of seeing their enjoyment was enough for the moment. She played with the hair on Mike’s chest, dragged her fingers over his abs, rubbed his shoulder until Carlos caught her hand and kissed it.

That was so damn sweet.

She closed her eyes and drifted a little, caught up in the emotion, the love she felt between them, the contentment. Once again, she felt that twinge of envy for what they had together, something so solid and real and honest.

“Was that good for you?” Carlos asked and her eyes flickered open to meet his. She saw the teasing glint and smiled.

“Surprisingly, it was,” she murmured.

“Little voyeur,” Mike mumbled, his hand tangling in her hair and tugging. Oooh, she liked that. A lot.

She smiled. “I guess so. Who knew?”

“But you need a turn, doll,” Carlos said.

She huffed out a laugh. “Yes, I do. But I’ll give you guys a few minutes.”

“Thanks.”

“Get on top of me,” Mike said to her.

“Hmm?” But she rose up and straddled his hips, smiling at him.

“Up here.” He caught her hips in his hands and tugged and she shuffled up higher. “Bring that pretty pussy up here.”

Her breathing stuttered but she moved up on the bed until her pussy was positioned over his face. He tugged her down and she grabbed on to the headboard as his mouth found her center. She shivered with delight at the touch on her sensitive flesh, his tongue stroking through her folds, his hands on her ass, holding her there. She gasped as his tongue flicked over her clit, swollen and straining, and she lowered herself a little more…a little more, increasing the pressure where she needed it.

“God!” Her head fell back, her eyes drifted closed and she let him lick her, pleasure torching her body. Sensation shot through her, her fingers curled around the top of the wooden headboard, and her womb contracted. “Oh God.” He sucked her clit into his mouth, and she rocketed headlong into orgasm, shuddering with exquisite pleasure, her body going weak. Carlos caught her, arms around her, held her as Mike gently licked her quivering flesh and she drifted back down.

Carlos kissed her cheek, helped her lie down on top of Mike, stretched out on his big hard body, her face buried in his neck, while two pairs of hands roamed over her body in soft strokes. Then Mike wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, one hand sliding into her hair to cup the back of her head and hold her there, so tenderly it made her chest ache.

“Thanks,” she eventually mumbled and she heard his soft chuckle. He rolled her off him and onto her back, moving over her, and kissed her mouth, a long, clinging kiss, her taste lingering on his lips and tongue.

“This is kind of crazy,” she said.

“Yeah. So?”

She smiled and moved one shoulder. “Nothing. Just…if I think too much about it, I get a little freaked out.”

“You wanted this.”

“Yeah. I did. I do… You know.”

He kissed her again. “Yeah. I know. So don’t think about it too much. Okay?”

“Mmm. I’ll try. You might have to distract me somehow.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him, and at Carlos, turning her head on the pillow to meet his eyes. He smiled back at her lazily.

“We might be able to manage that.”

Chapter Seventeen

“We have a climbing wall,” Carlos said. “We use it for first timers to give them some basic instruction. That’s where we’ll start.”

He watched Jules sink her teeth into her bottom lip, and he wanted to lean over his kitchen counter and kiss those soft lips. Mike was already at the office. Carlos had an empty morning and he and Jules had agreed on a climbing lesson, but then over morning coffee she’d had second thoughts.

“I don’t know,” she said.

He resisted the urge to sigh. They’d been through this before and he thought he’d convinced her to give it a shot. Most of the customers who came to them were eager to try climbing or some kind of adventure, but there were always a few who were nervous, who’d been talked into it by an adventurous partner or something. He’d dealt with fears before.

“It’s your choice, Jules,” he said, striving for some of that patience he’d learned from Mike. “You always have a choice. But do you want fear to control your life?”

“My fear of heights hardly
controls my life.”

He gave her a look. “Then what’s stopping you? It’s up to you how you deal with it.”

She looked down at the counter and stretched her palm out flat on it, apparently fascinated by her fingers. “I know.”

“Fear can be a good thing too,” he continued.

She glanced up at him. “How so?”

“It can mobilize us. When we have that surge of adrenaline it helps focus our attention. It sharpens perception and gives our bodies strength. It prepares us for peak performance. But if you let it, it can paralyze you and prevent action.”

He held her gaze, watched her mind processing his words. Then she gave a short nod. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

“Good girl. Stepping outside your comfort zone is important once in a while. Just think about the rewards.”

“The photographs.”

He rounded the counter and pulled her up from the stool she sat on to hug her. “The photographs are only one part of the reward. Just wait and see how you feel after you do this.
That
will be your reward.”

“Ooookay.” He heard the doubt in her voice and smiled as he took her hand.

“Let’s go.”

He drove them to their building just outside of town where their offices were and where they stored equipment. They also had the small climbing wall that they used for instruction and the high ropes course there. On the way, he told her what they’d be doing—that he’d fit her with climbing shoes, a harness and a belay device. “It’s different than climbing outdoors,” he said. “But it’s a good introduction. It’s very safe and in a controlled environment.”

“But climbing up a cliff is not.”

“No, it’s not,” he agreed. “The cliff we want to start you at is relatively easy, though.”

He watched her lips compress.

Once there, he gave her his usual crash course on climbing, explaining the equipment, how to belay and lower and some basic movements. Then he fitted her with the shoes she’d need. “I don’t wear socks in my climbing shoes,” he told her. “I like to be able to feel the rock as much as I can.”

She nodded.

“This is the harness. It’s designed to transfer the forces of a fall onto your pelvis rather than on your waist.” He tightened it a little more on her, enjoying having his hands on her. “It should fit snugly on your body. Then we tighten the leg loops and the riser at the back here…” He did the final adjustments. “There. Now, to tie the waist strap through the buckle.” He passed the strap through the buckle and then doubled it back through a second time so it wouldn’t come undone. He double-checked it to ensure safety with the ease of long experience. “Good. Now for the belay device. This allows you to control and brake the rope.”

She nodded, watching him with careful focus that made him smile. He kissed her forehead.

“To climb, you should know how to tie some basic knots. Here we’ve pre-tied a figure eight and we’ll clip this into a locking carabiner on your harness. This way you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh God.”

He grinned. “It’ll be fine, Jules. Ready?”

“Um. Sure.”

“This wall is vertical,” he said. “Some actually have an overhang to add challenge, but most of our challenges are done outside on rock, so we have this basic vertical wall here. There are lots of big handholds and footholds, because this is for beginners. See?”

She nodded.

He got her started, giving her instructions as she went on how to hold the different handholds. “Some are jugs,” he called to her. “You can get your whole hand around those. Others are pockets and you can dig your fingers in.”

“My arms are burning already!” she called to him.

“Use your legs. Your legs are much stronger than your arms, don’t try to climb with just your arms. Try to use the footholds to keep your weight off your arms. Find your balance.”

He watched her make it to the top of the wall. And stop. “Now what?” Her voice trembled.

“You did it! Great job, Jules!”

“I want down.” Fear edged her voice.

“You’re fine, doll. Just fine. Ready to come down?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” He pulled the rope tight in his belay device. “I’m lowering you now.” He began to slowly let the rope slide through the device, careful not to go too fast. And then she was lightly touching down on the ground beside him.

She threw herself into his arms and held on tightly. He wrapped her up and hugged her. “You did great, doll. Awesome for the first time. How do you feel?”

She drew back and looked up at him. He saw the sheen of perspiration on her face and her chest in the opening of her thin T-shirt. But her eyes shone and she beamed a smile at him. “I did it!”

“You sure did.” He released her and held up his hand for a high five and she gave it a firm smack. She laughed. “Want to do it again?”

“Oh God.” She drew in a long breath. “Okay. Sure.”

He didn’t want her to do too much because she was going to feel it in her thighs and arms, but a couple more practice runs would be good for her and give her confidence. Pride swelled inside him at the way she’d gone past her fear. Of course, they still hadn’t gotten her up the rock face at Mosaic Cave Beach yet. But they would.

After, they found Mike in his office, seated at his computer. He leaned back in his chair, smiling, listening to her tell him what she’d done, and Carlos knew he felt the same pride and admiration. He met Mike’s eyes, sharing a moment of understanding.

“Congratulations,” Mike told her, standing for a hug.

“Come see the high ropes course,” Carlos said. Mike tagged along when they went out into their compound and showed her around.

“Now that is crazy,” she declared, looking up at the structures they used.

“You could do it,” Carlos said.

She laughed. “I don’t think I need to go that far.”

It would be good for her. But he caught Mike’s eye and the message there—don’t push it. He grinned. “Come on. I’ll buy you lunch and then take you to the gallery. You wanna come, Mike?”

“Yeah. But no. I’ve got a shitload of work to get done.”