Northern Exposure: Compass Brothers, Book 1 (10 page)

“Come in.”

Lucy opened the door since Colby carried the tray. She stopped short in front of him, nearly causing him to smash their dinners between them. When he’d managed to control the wobble and rebalance his cargo, he noticed what had captured his wife’s attention.

“You read them.” A grin spread across Colby’s face.

“Yeah.” Silas patted the bed next to him. “Come here, sweetheart.”

Lucy glanced over her shoulder for Colby’s nod before sprinting across the small space and hopping onto the mattress. She laughed and dove through the crumpled envelopes as though they were a pile of fall leaves.

Silas tugged her closer, limiting her movement.

“Oh, shit, sorry. Did I jostle you?”

“I’m not delicate, Lu.” Silas sat up straighter and hugged her. He kissed her cheek with infinite tenderness that threatened to close Colby’s windpipe. How long had he waited to witness something like this?

“You look better today.” His wife fit so well in his best friend’s hold. She leaned back a little to study Silas.

“Feel better.” He smiled into her eyes. “All because of you. These letters. Colby’s understanding. All of it. I can’t figure out where to start.”

“How about with dinner? You need to eat, and so does Colby.”

“I think I better hit the shower first or I’ll ruin the chair.” He did a quick sniff check and nearly passed out. “Definitely a shower.”

“Want me to run your jeans through the wash?” Lucy offered.

“That bad, huh?” Colby examined his soiled clothes. “Yeah, I guess we better.”

“There should be a pair of gym shorts in my duffle.” Silas jerked his chin toward the bag on the floor. Then his eyes turned dark, hungry. “Or you could go without.”

A tiny moan escaped Lucy, breaking the moment and making them all laugh.

“How ’bout you two concentrate on eating dinner and we’ll see where things go from there?” Colby grinned when two gazes followed his progress around the room. He couldn’t help but rile them further.

He toed off his boots then sidled into the bathroom to flip on the shower. When he’d adjusted the water, he shouted over his shoulder. “I’ll leave the door open so I can hear in case you need anything.”

Dual stares burned into his back as he shrugged his cotton button-down shirt from his shoulders. He dropped the garment into the hamper then ripped open his fly. Thank God. The pressure had been strangling his hard cock all day.

He peeled off his socks then tucked his fingers into his waistband and nudged his jeans until they dropped to his ankles. He stepped out of the denim then bent to deposit the rest of his dirty clothes in the laundry.

“Jesus!”

A girly giggle followed Silas’s rough exclamation. “Hungry, Silas?”

“Starved.”

“Go ahead and eat, then Lucy and I can swap.” Colby called out. He couldn’t resist one peek over his shoulder as he stepped into the shower. The naked lust on Silas’s face matched the longing on his wife’s. His cock jumped at their attention.

He slathered himself with suds, taking a world-record breaking shower. He made sure to wash all the important bits but forced himself to stop soaping his shaft when it would have been easy to lose control. So easy.

Colby rotated, allowing the water to sluice down his back and run between his ass cheeks. He canted forward, taking the spray against his sensitive hole, imagining what it would be like if it were someone’s fingers—or tongue, or cock—caressing him instead.

Precome dripped from his crown onto the shower floor where it swirled in the eddy before disappearing down the drain. His plan almost backfired when he cupped his balls with one palm, fitting the other over the head of his cock.

“You’re taking an awfully long time in there, foreman,” Silas shouted from the other room. “Your dinner is getting cold.”

The strangled sound that emerged when he tried to yell a retort betrayed him. Lucy and Silas laughed between the clinking of forks and knives on their plates. He shut the water off with a snap then toweled dry. He didn’t trust himself to tempt them more than he already had.

Not yet.

When Colby wrapped the terrycloth around his waist, he realized hiding his erection would be impossible. He debated for all of ten seconds before deciding, what the fuck? No time like the present. He strode from the room, completely naked and obviously aroused.

“Is that our dessert?” Lucy collected Silas’s empty plate, stacking it on her own, before kissing his cheek and heading toward the bathroom.

“Could be.” Colby smiled, a little unsure of how to proceed.

“Why don’t you tuck under the covers and eat your dinner while Lucy cleans up?”

The chill in the room couldn’t account for the shiver that shook him at Silas’s suggestion. He did as directed, twisting the top off a beer from the tray then digging in to his food. Sitting side by side with Silas, their shoulders leaning against the headboard, seemed surreal. He focused on the home cooking filling his growling stomach.

“I’d do just about anything for a big swig of that.” Si reached toward the bottle. “Do you mind?”

“Should you drink when you’re taking pain killers?”

The other man hesitated with his hand wrapped around the dewy brown glass.

“I haven’t used any today. I won’t be doing that again.” Silas shook his head. “Between you and me, I’m done with
all
the hard stuff. Booze included. Kick my ass if you see me slipping, but I need a sip or two to make it through the next hour.”

“I understand.” Colby put his hand over Silas’s on the beer, squeezing. He couldn’t imagine how hard it had been for the other man so far from home. Lost in thought, he left his fingers there a little too long and things became awkward. He laughed, hating how nervous he sounded. “This is kind of weird after all this time.”

“It is.” Silas rounded on him, the newfound honesty he’d sworn to live by evident in his stormy eyes. “But we’ll work it out. It’ll become normal. Natural.”

“You’ve done this before?” Colby hated the jealous prickle that climbed the nape of his neck. Hell, he’d spent the last ten years making love to Lucy every chance he found. Silas had to have had someone to turn to for companionship, for relief.

“With another guy?” Silas scrubbed his hand over his face then took a gulp of beer. He placed the bottle on the far side of Colby’s tray, away from himself. “Yeah. Lots of times. Would you hand me my shaving kit from my bag when you’re done?”

Colby shoveled the last bite of mashed potatoes into his mouth to keep from cursing or having to answer at all. He couldn’t risk blurting the wrong thing. His appetite diminished, he swung from the bed to retrieve Si’s razor and the warm bowl of water sitting nearby.

As Silas removed layer after layer of whiskers, exposing his bare skin to the elements for the first time in a long time, Colby stewed. He picked at the blankets, trying not to stare at the familiar visage Silas revealed. Without facial hair, he reminded Colby of the young man he’d known. The friend he’d lost. The guy who’d left them to fuck a swath across the Arctic.

Was he angry? Jealous? Envious?

Lucy saved the day when she reappeared. Nothing obscured her beauty.

“Son of a bitch.” Silas gawked so hard at the seductive curve of her pert breasts and the dip of her trim waist, Colby expected drool to gather at the corners of his mouth. The other man groaned when his wife did a sultry turn in the middle of the floor, shaking her ass and running her fingers down to her bare mound.

“I guess we both did a little trimming.” She giggled. “You look handsome, Si.”

“You’re even sexier than I imagined, Lu. And I fantasized about it a lot.”

“You did?” She nibbled her lip.

“Yeah, almost constantly.” Si held out his hand and she approached to accept it. “I read those letters today, Lucy. I couldn’t believe, all this time, you were scared I didn’t find you attractive.”

“What?” Colby’s jaw dropped. “Baby, how could you think that? He used to lose it every time you came near.”

“I know, right?” Silas’s mouth twisted. His smile held a huge dose of cynicism and disgust. “I guess I did a great job of hiding my lust from her when she was too young. If she hadn’t been so damn innocent she would have seen right though me. Like you did.”

“All I could think about was how you two looked together.” She probably didn’t realize her hand had wandered to cup her breast as she recalled the fateful evening. “You were so wild, so hungry, so perfect.”

“Would you like a repeat performance, now that we’re all clean and fed?” Colby noticed Silas’s cock tenting the sheet as much as his own did.

Lucy blinked, as though trying to concentrate on practical matters. “I didn’t have time to do more than eat while you were in the shower. I didn’t give him his medicine or help him clean up. Are you okay, Si? Do you need pills? Do you feel clean?”

“No.”

“I can give you a sponge bath.”

Both men groaned.

Chapter Seven

“While that’s tempting, it isn’t what I meant.” Silas hung his head, something Colby didn’t remember the proud man ever having done before.

His wife carried a porcelain basin to the sink in the bathroom and filled it with hot, soapy water. Colby swung his frame from the bed and toted the heavy load for her.

Damn woman never asked for help.

She whipped the quilt and sheet from the bed, exposing Silas to their roving stares. Despite the dozens of marks dotting his skin and the immobilizing brace keeping his femur in line, his physique still stole Colby’s breath. “Holy shit.”

“What he said.” Lucy ogled Silas’s thick cock, licking her lips, but their friend didn’t seem to understand at first.

“They put a metal rod in my thigh. If someone leaves my crutches where I can reach them I might try them out tomorrow.”

“Not by yourself. You’ll wait until Colby can spot you.” Lucy still didn’t avert her gaze. “Roll over, Si.”

“If I do, you won’t be able to stare at my cock anymore.”

She had the decency to blush. “It’s more important to wash you clean.”

“It’ll take a hell of a lot more than a sponge bath to do that, sweetheart.” Silas accepted Colby’s hand as he scooted lower on the mattress then sprawled onto his front. He lifted his hips to arrange his enormous package.

The motion wiggled his ass, making Colby groan.

“Tell us about it, Si.” Lucy dunked the sponge in the warm, soapy water then drew it over Silas’s shoulders. She spent extra time swirling the moist material across the tattoo of Compass Ranch. “We’re here. We’re listening.”

“I’m afraid I’ll scare you both off.”

“We’d never judge you.” Colby watched, mesmerized, as his wife continued to soothe the man they both cherished. After she’d finished washing and drying a portion of Silas’s skin, Colby couldn’t help himself from joining in. He massaged the spaces between Si’s injuries, gratified when tension left bunched muscles where he rubbed.

“The more I read today, the more I realized how
wholesome
you both are.” He sighed deep enough for the persistent rattle in his lungs to echo in the room. “Colby, you messed around with a couple girls in high school, but once you hooked up with Lucy, she was all for you.”

“And I’ve only ever been with Colby.” Dunk, swish, dry. This time across Silas’s lower back and the upper swells of his ass.

“Damn, sweetheart. That’s so hot to me.” Silas’s hands started to fist on the sheets until Colby flattened them once more. “I’m not proud of it, but I spent a lot of nights trying anything to warm up inside. I fucked a ton of women. And men. I was always careful, always used protection, still…”

“You think we’d reject you because you’ve had a lot of partners?” Lucy tilted her head as she moved on to Si’s powerful thighs, careful not to press too hard around the area of his fracture.

“I think you should. Not only because of how many there were but also because I did it without an ounce of caring.”

“Not even for Red?” Lucy concentrated on washing Silas’s feet.

A strangled groan burst from him when Colby followed in her wake, massaging Silas’s heels, pressing into the fleshy part of the soles with his thumbs.

“How do you know about Red?” Silas’s question crackled with all the emotion he claimed not to have felt.

“I spoke to him on the phone a few months ago. I, sort of, called you every once in a while. Sorry for all the hang-ups.” Lucy nudged Silas’s hip. “Over.”

Colby helped him roll onto his back. Silas’s hard cock flopped onto his belly with a thud. “Okay, Red was different. Maybe, if I hadn’t already loved you both, I could have been happy with him. I should have made him leave.”

“You aren’t responsible for what happened, Silas.” Lucy paused her nurturing to kiss his scrunched eyelids.

“Maybe.”

Colby rubbed Si’s scalp, helping him relax again. Without pain pills, sitting in bed all day had to rip up such an active guy. “Look at me, Silas.”

When the man complied, Colby leaned close. “We accept you despite your faults. If abandoning us for ten long years didn’t tear us apart, then you sleeping around to fill the void won’t do it either. If I hadn’t had Lucy all this time, I have no idea what I would have done. At least you used protection.”

“And I got tested. Every month.” He winced. “There was a lot of shit circulating in those bunkhouses. I made sure I’m clean. I’d never put you at risk like that. Either of you. I just… needed to share. In case you’re still interested in something more.”

Colby couldn’t stop himself from eliminating the gap between them. He fused his lips to Silas’s, half-braced for rejection even now. He shouldn’t have worried.

Si buried his fingers in Colby’s damp hair and tugged him closer, devouring his mouth. Lost in the moment, he didn’t realize the pressure on his cock was caused by more than the throbbing he’d experienced for two days straight. When Silas moaned into his parted lips, Colby cut his eyes toward his wife.

Lucy held a cock in each hand, pumping in time to the thrust of her men’s tongues between each other’s lips. Fuck, that was hot. He broke the kiss, needing a breath of air.

Silas coughed beneath him.

“Are you okay?”