Something Sparked-nook (17 page)

He ran his fingers along her cheek. “You’re so beautiful, angel.” He punctuated the compliment with the sweetest kiss she’d ever gotten from Diego. She was used to his passionate, hungry touches. God, she loved them. But she found this gentle side of his just as irresistible.

Jeannette relaxed.

Luc’s chest was pressed to her back, his hand lightly caressing her breast, but the lethargic, lusty haze evaporated when he shifted closer, his erection brushing against her ass, through the material of his lounge pants. At the same time, Diego’s hand found its way to her pussy.

She sighed with pleasure when the tip of his finger stroked her clit. She recalled touching herself there last night as Diego fucked Luc’s ass. For such a small thing, that little button packed a wallop.

Diego pressed harder. She thrust her hips closer, wanting more of that magical touch.

“God, angel,” Diego murmured when she began to move against him faster. Between Diego’s wicked fingers and the constant nudge of Luc’s covered cock against her ass, she couldn’t decide which sensation was hotter.

Luc’s hand left her breast, reaching down to cup her knee. He lifted her leg, guiding it over Diego’s waist. The new position left her open, the cool air no match for the heat pulsing from her pussy.

Diego still stroked her clit, as Luc’s hand caressed the cheek of her ass.

Jeannette felt as if she were floating on a cloud.

It took little more than one touch to send her plummeting back to reality.

On the next forward thrust of her hips, Diego moved his fingers, one of them penetrating her wet opening, gliding inside and straight to the hilt.

She gasped then reared away, clamoring over Luc, tumbling off the mattress and crab crawling backwards along the floor until she hit the wall roughly.

Both men sat up rapidly, their hands out in surrender.

“Wait, Jeannette,” Luc said. “Shit. Stop. Just stop. We shouldn’t have done any of that without talking first.”

Jeannette panted loudly, her breath coming out in painful gasps. “I, I can’t…” She looked around the room, trying to figure out how to get out of there, out of the house as quickly as possible.

“Don’t even think about it,” Diego said, his deep voice leaving no doubt he wouldn’t let her escape. “We’re not going to touch you. Not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to, but you’re not going anywhere. Not like this.”

Spots clouded her vision and she felt dizzy.

“Christ,” she heard Luc exclaim. He gently tugged her off the floor and propelled her to the side of the bed, her legs dangling over the edge. “Put your head between your knees.”

“W-what?”

“You’re white as a ghost,” he explained. “This will help. Keep you from passing out.”

She did as he said, though she wanted to assure him she’d never fainted in her life.

Luc left the bed, kneeling in front of her. She saw him reach out to touch her. His hands hovered just an inch or so away from her before he reconsidered and pulled them back.

Instead, he just remained close, his soft tone comforting. “In through your nose. Out through your mouth.” Over and over, he offered the simple instructions until she’d managed to get her breathing under control.

She lifted her head slowly, feeling like fifty different kinds of a fool. “I’m so sorry.”

Luc gave her a sweet smile. “No apology necessary.” His face sobered up slightly. “Jeannette, are you a virgin?”

She laughed mirthlessly and shook her head.

“Who did it?” Diego asked.

Though he’d been silent, she hadn’t forgotten his presence behind her. She turned at his question. His expression was dark, thunderous.

She didn’t answer.

“Billy?” he asked.

She’d never witnessed true anger until that moment. It should have scared the shit out of her, but instead, for the first time in years, she felt protected.

“Diego, please.”

“Tell me the truth, Jeannette.” Diego’s jaw was clenched tightly.

“I think…” The words had been locked away so long. So fucking long. “I think he raped me.”

“You
think
?”

“I don’t…I don’t really know…”

“Did he drug you?”

She shook her head. This is why she’d never talked about it. She had been a sixteen-year-old virgin with a dead mother and absolutely no knowledge of sex. Her first experience had been…terrifying and painful and so fucking confusing.

Luc ran his hand through his hair and sank down next to her on the mattress. “Jesus, Jeannette. You’re killing me, baby. Please tell us what happened.”

Bile rose in her throat. She swallowed heavily, praying she didn’t get sick. She’d never told another living soul about that night. Not her sister or her Aunt Stella or her cousins. Instead, she had locked it away and then retreated. Distance was safety.

“My parents died when I was sixteen.”

Luc nodded. They knew that fact. Maybe that was why she started there. She prayed that once she started telling them everything, the hard stuff would come out with the rest. “I was dating Billy at the time. It was sort of typical, first-love kind of stuff. He was my first kiss, the first boy to touch my boobs—over my shirt, of course.” She had hoped that comment would provoke a grin, but neither man made a move.

“Anyway, he was really sweet to me after I lost my parents. I cried nonstop for days and he was there for me. Then his mom got a new boyfriend and Billy told me they were moving away. Everything in my life was in upheaval. I’d lost my mom and dad, moved out of my childhood home and into Tyson’s bedroom, complete with posters of sports stars and fashion models. I just felt sort of lost.”

Luc reached out to take her hand. She clasped it, grateful for the support. Without words, he was letting her know he was there.

“Billy and I went out on a car date. My parents hadn’t ever let me do that, but Aunt Stella knew it was our last date since Billy was moving the next day. And she knew he was a nice boy.”

Luc’s eyes narrowed, but Jeannette held up her hand. “He
was
a nice boy. Honest. We drove to the lake and sat there, watching the moon reflect off the water, talking about how much we were going to miss each other. We were both sixteen. Both virgins. We sort of felt like our world was ending.”

Luc squeezed her hand. She was rambling. Avoiding.

“We started kissing, then more. Things escalated and Billy asked me to have sex with him. I should have said no because I didn’t really want to. But he was leaving and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

Diego growled at that. Jeannette smiled sadly. “I’ve never been overly assertive or very good at standing up for myself. Macie’s always been my backbone.”

Diego obviously didn’t like that comment. “You’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.”

She appreciated his compliment, even if it was a lie. She was queen of the cowards and she knew it.

“I didn’t give him an answer, but when he suggested that we move to the backseat, I did. I guess he took that as a yes. He pulled down my pants and then his. That was when I sort of started to panic. I told him I didn’t think it was a very good idea. He said I was just nervous, which I was. He started moving quicker then. He pulled me down on the seat and he came over me. I told him I’d changed my mind, that I didn’t want to do it.”

Jeannette closed her eyes. She could still hear the fear in her voice, the way it got louder, higher. “He didn’t seem to hear me. He started putting on a condom. I tried to sit up, but he held me down, kept saying it was okay, that it was right. I never realized how strong he was. I mean, I guess I should have known that. He worked on his uncle’s farm. I kept trying to get away but he weighed me down, told me to relax. Promised me he’d make it feel good. I started crying then.”

She felt the tears streaming down her face. She didn’t bother to open her eyes. Now that she’d started, there was no turning back.

“He stopped talking to me. I pressed my legs together, but he just grabbed my knees and yanked them apart.”

Jeannette felt the mattress shift. She lifted her eyelids and saw that Diego had risen from the bed. He was pacing the room, unadulterated fury flashing in his eyes. She hesitated until Luc cupped her cheek, drawing her gaze to his face.

“Finish it.”

“It hurt. A lot. I cried. I begged him to stop. I tried to get away. He just kept going.”

“Then what?”

“And then it was over. We got dressed and he drove me home. The whole way there he just kept saying that the first time always hurt for girls, that it would be better the next time.” She snorted, a humorous, angry sound. “There wasn’t a next time.”

She recalled the rest of that night. How hard it had been for her to walk upstairs. How she’d gone to the bathroom and found her panties stained with tinges of blood. She had wrapped them up in a huge wad of toilet paper and thrown them away. She had crawled into bed and cried until there were no more tears left inside her.

At the time, she’d been embarrassed, ashamed. She didn’t tell anyone what had happened. How could she? Aunt Stella had already opened her home to her, taken on the rearing of two more girls. Jeannette hadn’t wanted to add to her stress, to make her aunt think less of her.

Besides, all she’d really wanted was her mom. Even now, she wished her mother were there.

So she crashed in on herself.

“He raped you.” Diego broke the silence in the room.

She looked at him, feeling remarkably calm for the first time in…maybe forever. “What?”

“You said you thought he raped you. He
did
.”

Jeannette nodded. “Yeah. He did.”

“You’ve never been with anyone since then?” Diego asked.

“No. No one.” She’d taken the pain associated with the rape and twisted it into a pretty serious phobia. Jeannette had never used a tampon, never masturbated, never gone to the gynecologist. Nothing.

Luc leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “What can we do, Jeannette? Anything. Ask for anything and it’s yours.”

There was only one thing she wanted, one thing she needed—and that was to move forward, to have a life, to feel normal. She was so tired of pushing people away.

Diego knelt on the floor by her feet. “
Anything.
”

She didn’t like seeing so much pain on his face or hearing him sound so lost. Diego was strong, self-assured, confident. She’d come to rely on that strength. She’d fed from it, learned from it.

“Touch me,” she whispered.

Diego frowned. “What?”

She didn’t doubt for a moment that they’d both heard her request. For a moment, she feared they’d reject her.

“Touch me,” she repeated, her voice stronger, more demanding.

“Lay down,” Diego said, rising from the floor. She glanced to her right, relieved to see Luc’s determination.

She crawled onto the bed and shifted onto her back. She became more aware of her nudity as she lay there before them.

“Take off your pants.” She’d meant her words to come out as a question, but somehow it had turned into a command. Neither man refused.

Once they’d shed their pajama pants, they resumed their places on the mattress, surrounding her with their big bodies.

Diego was the first to reach for her. He turned her face toward his and kissed her. The passion was still there, but she felt him holding back.

One of the reasons she’d been so attracted to him and Luc was because they’d always treated her like a normal person. She didn’t want that to change.

Reaching up, she gripped his wrist in her hand. “Kiss me like you mean it, Diego. Like you want me. I don’t want you to treat me with kid gloves or act like I’m some broken porcelain doll.”

Diego’s eyes narrowed, but she welcomed the fire she saw there. “Regardless of what you think, Jeannette. You
are
a virgin, and I can’t for the fucking life of me figure out a way not to hurt you physically. You just dropped a bomb on us, angel. We’re only human. So you’re just going have to give me a second to get my bearings, to find a way to make love to you that won’t bring you pain.”

She hadn’t considered her request from their perspective. “I’m a selfish bitch, aren’t I?”

Luc kissed her shoulder. “Nope. Not even a little. You’ve never asked anyone for anything. I’m flattered that you trust me and D enough to ask for this. Since Diego is freaking out over there, let’s just cut to the chase. We’ve been touching, kissing and holding you for weeks. The problem has to do with penetration, right?”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Diego roll his eyes as he muttered, “Jesus.”

She appreciated Luc’s candor, his genuine desire to help her get past her fears. “Yes. That’s what scares me. That’s the part that hurt.”

“So we just need to show you that it doesn’t hurt, right?”

She nodded, even as her damn cowardly heart began to race. Luc didn’t miss the change.

“Remember last night? What I promised to do?”

Jeannette hoped that one of these days she’d find a way not to blush.

Luc chuckled. “I guess you do. Good.” With that, he sat up, moving lower until he knelt between her open legs. She reached out to grip his hair, the reaction purely an instinctive, protective one.

“Easy, angel,” Diego whispered as he pried her fingers out of Luc’s hair.

She turned to face him, searching for his lips. Diego kissed her once more, but this time there was no restraint, no holding back.

They wouldn’t hurt her. Her heart, her head and her body were all in agreement on that.

She sucked in a deep breath when she felt Luc’s fingers at the top of her thighs.

“Ohmigod!” she cried, when his tongue stroked her from opening to clit.

Diego moved slightly, his lips closing over her nipple. His tongue teased the sensitive nub before his teeth nipped. At the same time, Luc mimicked that sharp bite on her clit.

“Oh.” Her back arched. “So good. Feels so good.”

Jeannette struggled to keep up as her men, her lovers, continued their play. They were seducing her with all five senses, with their hungry looks, deep-throated groans, the light scent of sweat mingled with arousal, and the taste of their kisses working in tandem with their never-ending touches.