Risk Is a Four-Letter Word (16 page)

Eric grinned as she walked over to his bed. The
doctor touched his forehead with her palm then pulled out a penlight. "I
see you're awake and reasonably coherent. Good. The concussion isn't too bad.
We already had you in for a scan and your skull is fine. No swelling. You can
go home with your friends tonight as long as you promise to take it easy."

Eric grunted, suddenly exhausted. He wanted
details about what happened. Carrie read his irritation correctly and touched
his arm comfortingly while the doctor checked his vitals.

"Are you still nauseous?" the doctor
asked.

Eric shook his head. "No."

The doctor smiled. "Good. The antiemetic
we gave you is working."

He nodded then looked at Carrie. "What the
hell happened?"

"After the third guy hit you with the
iron, you went down like a sack of potatoes. Zeke went berserk and heaved the
guy holding him over his head. It was amazing. He had to be at least a hundred
pounds heavier than Zeke. I got the guy swinging the iron with my pepper spray.
Then the cops showed up and hauled them off. End of story."

Eric stared at her in disbelief. Pepper spray?
Seriously?
She took down a man swinging a tire iron with
pepper spray? "What did the police say?"

She shrugged. "They asked me and Zeke a
lot of questions while we waited for the ambulance.
Turns out
Zeke's dad has
been in and out of the county jail a bunch of times this
past year.
Public drunkenness.
Thankfully the cops believed
us, not him and his cronies."

"Jesus," Eric breathed.

"Yeah.
My dad is a real piece of work," Zeke chimed in.

"So much for our
date."
Eric wished he could hit something,
preferably Zeke's dad.
Multiple times.
Hard.

"At least you don't have to stay in the
hospital," Carrie said with forced cheer. "I get to take the two of
you home tonight.
Lucky me."

"The cops didn't say anything about us
making out at the park?"

Carrie blushed, glancing at the doctor.
"Um, they didn't believe Zeke's dad."

The doctor looked at them curiously. "The
three of you were on a date? Together?"

Eric looked at the woman and decided to just
come out with it.
"Yeah.
The three of us are
dating each other." He was tired of hiding it, worrying about who was
going to freak out and who wasn't. Let everyone just deal with it.

The doctor frowned, confused. "How does
that work? Do you take turns or something?"

Carrie
laughed,
her
face still pink. "No. We kind of just wing it." Eric wanted to laugh
at the expression on the doctor's face, but he knew it would probably hurt.
Carrie took pity on the doctor. "Zeke and Eric are bisexual and I'm just
really lucky."

The doctor grinned. "You must have a lot
of energy."

Carrie smiled. "When I get tired, these
two can keep each other occupied."

The doctor's eyes widened in surprise but she
recovered quickly. She shook her head and tucked her stethoscope in her jacket
pocket. "Well, except for the mild concussion, you look to be in excellent
health, Mr. Wright. I'll get your discharge papers and you can head home."

"What about me?" Zeke called as she
headed out of the room.

"Oh, Dr. Gilbert has your paperwork done
already. He's just waiting on the printout."

Carrie looked at Eric. Eric looked at Zeke.
They burst out laughing, Eric wincing in between guffaws. Goddamn his head
hurt.

"Did you see her face?" Carrie
wheezed.

"Yeah.
That was awesome.
Almost as awesome as Eric
taking down my dad with one kick."
Zeke smiled and grimaced then
smiled again. Eric knew the cut near his mouth probably hurt, even with the
anesthetic.

"That wasn't as cool as Carrie taking down
that other guy with her tiny can of pepper spray. And I missed it," Eric
complained.

Zeke grinned again. "You should have seen
her! She was great. I was kind of busy trying not to throw up at the time, so I
let her do all the work."

Eric rolled his eyes and immediately wished he
hadn't. His head still ached like a bitch.

"It was nothing," Carrie said
bashfully.

"It was awesome," Zeke insisted.
"That was a
helluva
risk you took."

She shrugged. "Someone once told me that
some people are worth the risk. You've
gotta
grab on
with both hands if you want to be happy." She looked at Zeke, then at
Eric, her face serious. "The two of you make me happy."

C
hapter Nine

The ninth time Zeke set eyes on
Carrie,
she was standing in the front doorway of her
townhouse. A strange mixture of anticipation and nervousness slid through Zeke
and he shifted closer to Eric as the door swung open into the hall. Carrie
looked beautiful. Zeke hoped that this time they'd actually get to eat without
interruption.

"Hey, ready for some dinner?" she
asked, stepping back to let them in.

"You bet." Zeke smiled and followed
her into her foyer.

"I'm looking forward to it," Eric said, right
behind Zeke.

"You both look a lot better," she
remarked, taking their coats and hanging them in the closet.

Zeke shrugged. "We're fast healers."

"Still, it's only been a couple days and
already your cut looks mostly closed up." Carrie cupped his cheek.

"Hey, what about
me?"
Eric asked.

Zeke grinned under her hand as she rolled her
eyes.

"Your head is so hard, I had no doubt
you'd be fine," she said, her voice light.

Eric laughed and kissed her on her temple,
lingering. "It's a good thing you're cute."

"Or what?"
Carrie retorted as she leaned into him.

"Don't listen to him, he's a moron,"
Zeke said.

"You're the moron." Eric swatted him
and stepped back, laughing.

"Come on. Dinner's waiting." Carrie
tugged at their arms and led them downstairs to the living room. She had
take-out Thai arranged on the coffee table. "So, do you think we can
manage a date without injury or interruption if we hide out here? I promise, I
didn't tell anyone you were coming over."

"God, I hope so," Zeke muttered,
dropping down onto her sofa. He sighed, letting his tired body sink into the
soft brown fabric. "I love your couch, by the way. I think I want to make
love to it."

"Um, I'm right here, you know. You don't
have to settle for the sofa." Carrie laughed.

"And what about me?
I'm here, too." Eric dropped down next to Zeke, leaning over
and kissing him.

He smelled good and Zeke let himself relax into
Eric's affection for a moment before leaning back and smiling, touched.
"I'm so sorry about my dad."

Carrie sighed. "Stop apologizing. I'm
sorry I freaked out after the snowstorm. I hate that I let my fear win but we
can't do anything about it now except move on. I'm willing to bet Eric is sorry
about his mom, too."

Eric nodded.
"Though she
is
coming around.
She was
pretty upset when she found out what Zeke's dad did. I think my concussion and
Zeke's cut made everything very real very fast for her."

"Nothing like a little violence to bring a
family together," Zeke quipped. Carrie and Eric looked at him
sympathetically. He sighed. "My dad is never going to accept me. He's
never going to see the two of you like I do."

"Oh, Zeke," Carrie touched his hand.

"No, it's okay. I knew that. He abandoned
us years ago. I don't want anything from him except to be left alone."

Eric pulled Zeke into a strong hug and Zeke
absorbed his lover's comfort with gratitude. He knew Eric and Carrie didn't
care if his dad was a loser.

"At least your mom and Sherry are okay
with everything." Carrie toyed with her drink.

Zeke nodded.
"Yeah.
They're good people. I'm lucky to have them. And you." He smiled and grabbed
one of the cartons of Pad
Thai.
"I'm hungry. Let's eat. I want to get to the date part of the night.
Enough with all this melodrama.
I feel like I'm in a soap
opera or something."

Eric grinned. "You bet."

****

A half hour later, Zeke helped Carrie throw
away the last of the empty cartons. "That was really nice," he said,
dropping his empty cup in the garbage.

"Yeah," Carrie replied, smiling at
him as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Where did you find such good Thai?"

She smiled, her beautiful eyes sparkling.
"I took a chance and called a new place. It was worth it."

"What was worth a chance?" Eric
asked, coming into the kitchen. He tossed his carton in the trash.

"The new restaurant I ordered dinner from
tonight," Carrie explained.

"Oh," Eric said.

Zeke knew Eric was confused. "'Oh.' That's
it?" Zeke teased.

Eric flushed and ran a hand through his hair.
He looked gorgeous like that, tousled and a little flustered. "I thought
you were talking about something else."

"You thought we were talking about
you." Zeke walked forward and pressed his body into his lover. Eric
relaxed against the counter and Zeke leaned in.

"Maybe."
Eric sighed as Zeke kissed his chin. Zeke smiled and settled into
Eric's solid body, kissing over his jaw. Everything had been so stressful
lately. He felt a sudden urge to mark him. And Carrie too,
make
certain they knew how serious he was about them.
So many
chance meetings.
So many misunderstandings.
At
last they were here, in her place, and what were they doing?
Making
small talk over dinner.
His cock hardened as Eric's warmth penetrated
Zeke's jeans. He closed his teeth over Eric's neck and sucked, suddenly
desperate. His lover shivered.

"Zeke?"
Carrie whispered from the left.

Zeke let go of Eric, looking with satisfaction
at the hickey blooming on his neck. He turned to Carrie and swept her up
against his body, shoving her against Eric who grabbed her hips. Zeke trusted
Eric to hold her up.

"I feel like I'm going crazy," he
said into the side of her mouth. She lifted her hands and wound them around his
neck.

"Why? We've got you," she said.

Zeke laughed. They had
him
? No, he had
them
.
Right where he
wanted.
He rutted up against her hipbones, making sure to press her into
Eric's erection. They both quivered and Zeke's cock leapt.
Look what I do to them.
So hot.
He rolled
his hips some more.
" I've
got you, right here,
right now, and it's perfect," Zeke muttered, kissing her. Her mouth opened
to him, beautifully pliant. He ignored the anxiety that kept surfacing in his
gut, no matter how often he pushed it down. The thing with his Dad kept
floating into his head and he couldn't get rid of it.
Dammit
. He kissed Carrie deeper,
licking inside as if he could lose himself there.

"Zeke, what's going on?" Eric asked.
He lifted one of his hands off Carrie's hips and touched Zeke's face.

"I want you." Zeke couldn't figure
out any other way to put it. "I've got to have you."

"You do. You can," Carrie murmured,
kissing along his jaw. She moved back to his mouth. "You have us anyway
you want.
Whenever you want."
She sank her teeth
into his lower lip, biting until it stung, then laved the spot with her tongue.

Zeke shuddered as the stitches on his face
pulled a bit then he tore at her shirt, buttons flying everywhere. Her creamy
skin beckoned to him, her breasts plump and gorgeous behind the scrap of black
lace that was her bra.

"Whoa, man, we don't have to do this
here," Eric said, trying to stop Zeke's frantic haste.

"Yes, we do." Zeke shook off Eric's
hands and pulled down Carrie's skirt, the filmy red fabric floating to the
floor like a petal. He tore away her panties then went for Eric's t-shirt.
"Off. Take this off."

Eric stared at him for a moment, desire and
confusion warring on his face then he took off his shirt, exposing his muscled
chest to Zeke's eyes. He stared, fascinated as always by Eric's nipple rings.
He reached up and flicked one, smiling as Eric's mouth opened on a soundless
moan.

"Come on, Zeke," Carrie said. She
stepped away. How did she get loose? He thought Eric had her. But no, she was
walking down the stairs naked. Zeke started after her.