Riding Red (7 page)

He quickened his pace, his hips jacking back and forth, the muscles in his ass clenching beneath her fingers as he slammed into her with desperate, furious thrusts.

She joined in the frenzied tempo, her hips rocking with steady undulations, taking him deeper with every thrust.

“Fuck, Teresa…” Jeff rasped against her lips, his eyes wild.

His control was waning, if it hadn’t disappeared entirely. It was all she could do to cling to him as he pounded her tender flesh, and she knew she would be sore in the morning, but in that moment she didn’t care about what would come in the morning. All that mattered was the here and now.

She matched his hurried strokes, her own body racing with his as heat unfurled in her belly. Her pussy gushed, heat raked through her and every muscle in her body stiffened.

“I’m coming,” she cried out, her eyes clenching shut, her nails digging into his hard, taut buttocks.

His ass clenched as grunts and groans rose out of him. He pummelled her cunt with hard, unrelenting thrusts until the fridge banged against the wall. But even then he didn’t stop.

Hot, wet flesh smacked against hot, wet flesh, as the perfumed musk of sex permeated the air, dragging through her lungs. His frenzied pace, born of the yearnings of his body, was her undoing.

Teresa clung to him, every trembling space within her drawing tight as she shattered in his arms. She screamed out his name as she creamed his cock, which continued to pound inside her.

Her pussy seized his thrusting penis as she sucked him in with wet, erotic noises, and it was as though her orgasm triggered his, as though he hadn’t expected the blinding rush of pleasure to burn through him as a sizzling bolt of desire left her body to ignite his.

She knew his climax took him by surprise when he gasped, his body tensing against hers, his blunt nails digging into the supple flesh of her hips. He thrust into her once, twice, and then stilled, burying his engorged length deep. Teresa held tight to Jeff as he shuddered against her, calling her by her nickname on a tortured groan. His cock pulsed hot within her tunnel and then she felt the rush of warmth through the thin latex, signalling his release.

It was a long while before they stirred, their hearts beating wildly, their breath coming in stilted pants. When they finally disentangled their limbs, Teresa had to brace herself against the fridge at her back to steady her wobbly legs.

“Are you all right?” Jeff grasped her waist.

“I’m fine.” She nodded, flashing him a small smile.

Their gazes locked, and when she would have expected this moment to be awkward, the look that passed between them was so warm, so intimate, it stole her breath. What she glimpsed in his eyes, she wasn’t yet ready to name, let alone acknowledge.

Teresa glanced away and at the same time thunder rumbled in the distance and lightning streaked across the sky, flashing through the kitchen windows. That was when she saw him, hovering in the doorway, and before she could stop herself, a startled shriek ripped past her lips.

“Don’t stop on my account,” said Jason as he ambled into the kitchen, his every stride unhurried as if he had not a care in the world, as if he hadn’t just walked in on his brother making love to her.

Teresa stooped down to gather Jeff’s shirt and quickly wrapped it around her body. Jason arched a single brow, his lips lifting into a grin. She glared at him when instead of turning away and leaving the room as he should have done, he continued forward, halting just a few feet away from them.

“Do you think you could give us some privacy?” she demanded of Jason, irritated that Jeff hadn’t been the one to suggest it first. She glanced at him, expecting to glimpse annoyance on his face at his brother for interrupting them, but what she saw in his eyes made her belly flip-flop. And the look which passed between the two brothers did nothing to settle the churning contents of her stomach.

Jason shrugged. “If you want privacy, Teresa, I can leave you alone and go to my room.” Her heart stopped when he lifted his hand and she recognised the object he clutched between his fingers. “But is that truly what you want?”

The deep timbre of his voice washed over her, the burning embers flickering in his eyes stirred her. Jason was a handsome man and when he stared at her with lust in his gaze, it triggered something buried deep inside her. It wasn’t the same as what she felt for Jeff, nor was it as intense, or even close to the emotions and feelings Jeff aroused within her, but she could not pretend she was unaffected by the youngest Downing brother.

“You had no right to read that!” she accused him, deciding to ignore her burgeoning awareness of him, even though she knew it was futile, even though she knew he was well aware of all the secrets she’d tried to hide, the longings and fantasies she’d buried deep within.

“It was open on your bed. But you’re right, I shouldn’t have.” He reached out his hand and she snatched her diary from his grasp before he thought to change his mind and keep it. “But since I did, should I tell Jeff some of what I read on those pages?”

Myriad emotions arced between her and Jason—fear, outrage, desire, yearning. His eyes reassured her. He knew her greatest secret, but it was hers to keep, hers to tell. But as for the others…

Teresa froze, unable to speak, barely able to breathe.

He wouldn’t…

“‘
There are rumours that the Downing brothers, they sometimes share their women. I’ve asked BJ this, and she says they’re just rumours, but as she does, there is a look that flickers in her eyes and she can barely meet my gaze, and then I wonder—’”

“Don’t,” Teresa pleaded with Jason, her voice a desperate whisper. She noticed as he recounted her innermost thoughts—her
secret
discussions contained within her diary meant for her eyes and ears only—that he inched closer.

She glanced at Jeff, then back at Jason, and the look that ricocheted between the two of them was the same as earlier, sending a tiny shiver racing down her spine.

“Don’t what, Teresa? Don’t continue or don’t stop?” His question was met with silence, and wide eyes that begged him not to finish the passage she’d written only days ago.

“‘—
and then I wonder, what
would
it be like to be made love to by two men? The idea never appealed to me before, but that was because I could never imagine two men I would ever want to make love to at the same time. Well, the idea never appealed to me until I met Jeff and Jason Downing—’”

“Stop it!” Teresa had never been more humiliated in her entire life and she closed her eyes as if she could shut out the image of Jason Downing before her, revealing every hidden detail of her fantasies.

She tried to pull away from Jeff, but his arm was like a steel vice around her waist. He refused to release her as he held her tight, and he would not allow her to move, would not allow her to retreat from him.

Opening her eyes, it was some time before she could lift her head and meet his gaze. She’d expected disdain, or even snide amusement that she’d thought the both of them would be so desperate for sex that they’d want to
share
her, when they could so easily have any woman they wanted, when it was well known that women had to
share
them, not the other way around.

What she discovered in Jeff’s eyes, however, shocked her. It made her heart pound faster until she thought the organ would explode.

“Don’t fight it, Red, not if it’s what you desire. And do not be embarrassed or feel shame because of your yearnings, your fantasies.”

“But that’s just it. They’re just…fantasies.” Her gaze darted between the two brothers as she rasped out that last statement. They
were
just fantasies. She’d never intended for them to be anything more, but the way the two of them looked at her—hot and hungry, their eyes dancing with unfulfilled and unspoken desires… She shuddered against Jeff, the tremor shaking her to the very core.

“They are more than just fantasies. They are the yearnings of your body which you long to experience.”

She shook her head. “Some fantasies are meant to remain just that—”

“And some should be indulged in and explored.”

Teresa started to protest again until she realised what his admission truly meant.

“You’ve done this before,” she said flatly, surprised by how the single statement sent a sharp current of jealousy racing through her. He’d shared other women with his brother in the past. She was neither special, nor was she their first. She tried to pull free again, and just as before, he held her tighter.

“We have,” he admitted, and then he continued as if he could read her mind. “But this is the first time I have ever shared
my
woman with my brother. This is the first time I have shared a woman I have feelings for, so this will be a new experience for me as well.”

His woman?
The emotions his words aroused vied for dominance inside her. His entire expression was darkly possessive, even his hand curled at her waist was tight. She wasn’t sure how she felt about belonging to Jeff Downing, even as the very thought caused her belly to dance with jitters, and to know he had feelings for her… It was there in his eyes, stamped across his face. He was serious.

“This is all too much for me, it’s all too overwhelming,” she said in a rush. “I—I’ve never done this before. A-and I don’t want anyone to be hurt by this. I don’t have to do this…you don’t have to do this. I don’t even want to,” Teresa stammered.

Jeff cast her a knowing grin. “You belong to me.” His gaze flickered over her head at Jason. “My brother knows this and no matter what happens tonight between the three of us, that will never change. I can’t deny I want you all to myself, but there will be plenty of time for me to have you when Jason is gone. Right now, however, he is here, and I know you want this, Red, and I want to give this to you. I want to share this with you, but if you don’t, all you have to do is say so. Just say the word…”

Jason now stood so close that his every breath whispered across her face, tickling her cheek.

“Just say the word,” Jeff repeated.

No.
That was all she had to say and Jason would leave. Jeff was offering her one last chance. All she had to do was say the word, and Jason would walk away…but if he did, she knew she would never have the chance to experience this again. More than that, she would always regret denying herself this one stolen moment of pleasure, of fulfilling a fantasy she’d never imagined she ever would, all because of…what? Fear? But why was she so afraid?

Because her ex had hurt her so deeply? Made her afraid to be intimate with another man? Made her believe no other man would want her?

She’d wasted two bitter years nursing a broken heart and the pain of her failed marriage, but no longer. Tonight was not about fear or dwelling in the past, it was about experiencing pleasure and revelling in the longings of her body, succumbing to her innermost desires.

“Red?”

All she had to do was say
no
.

She couldn’t.

She didn’t.

Chapter Five

The ferocity of the storm raging through Hockley had begun to wane, even though rain continued to pelt the roof and thunder roared through the sky. Teresa’s own inner emotions oddly mimicked the tempestuous, tumultuous storm still raging outside as Jason closed the bedroom door behind her.

With Jeff’s shirt still wrapped around her, she clutched at the thin material despite the fact that it failed to fully cover her. With Jeff in front of her, and Jason still hovering against the door at her back, the shirt seemed to be the only thing standing between her and the two men.

But not for long.

Her heart beat out a furious staccato—the rhythm so fast and hard, she could almost imagine one could hear the pulsing sound from across the room. When Jeff’s eyes narrowed on her, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t her imagination at all.

“Come here.”

Teresa hesitated for perhaps a second before she crossed the room towards him. She quaked as she stood before him, staring into his shadowed face from beneath the fan of her lashes. As her gaze roamed his hard, muscled, naked body, she considered for possibly the hundredth time how she’d ended up here, with this man, when she’d sworn she never would. Teresa didn’t even bother adding Jason to the equation, because the notion was simply too overwhelming.

She’d sworn she couldn’t stand Jeff Downing, that she loathed him, that he was an immature playboy interested in nothing more than chasing skirts. Then she’d sworn she’d never be one among the throng of women who flocked to his bed, because he didn’t know what it meant to be a one-woman man, and Teresa had never taken to the idea of being just another notch on Jeff Downing’s belt.

He reached out his hand to cup her cheek, and she closed her eyes as his rough palm caressed her skin. When he touched her, she didn’t feel like another in a line of many. Teresa’s eyes fluttered open, and she lost herself in the ocean blue waves cresting in his gaze. When Jeff looked at her—
whenever
he looked at her—she felt as though she was the only woman he saw, that there was no one but the two of them in the entire world.

Jason shifted behind her, reminding Teresa that she and Jeff
weren’t
the only two people in the world, and certainly not in that room, but for a moment it
had
just been the two of them.

The thought which flickered into her mind then was so startling, she had to swallow down the lump in her throat. It was so unexpected, and so unwelcome that Teresa refused to even acknowledge it, but when Jeff’s eyes sharpened on her, she wondered for the third time that night…could he somehow hear her inner thoughts or was her face that open to him, her emotions that easy to read?

She glanced away, because she wasn’t yet ready to face the truth—she had feelings for Jeff Downing, real, genuine feelings for the man. She definitely wasn’t ready to reveal this knowledge to him as she kept her gaze averted, but Jeff was not one to let her retreat from him, not ever.