The Power of Love (18 page)

“God, I do. You know I do. Please, Josh. Please,” she cried out, lifting her hands to cup her breasts, to tease and torment the nipples. She didn’t care there was a cocky smirk aimed her way, she just wanted him. Badly.

He strutted forward, like a proud peacock, and bent down to kiss her. His mouth against hers was heaven, and he let their tongues tangle as he pressed his cock to her cunt. He nudged her clit repeatedly. The spongy glans massaged the hard pearl until she was whimpering low in her throat, the slight mewls filling the room with the sounds of her desire. That must have been what he was waiting for, because his dick slipped down, notching into her slit before sinking home.

Josh went deep. He always did, knew no other way. There was no teasing or taunts where fucking was concerned. He claimed her. Every inch. Filling her to overfull. She clutched his hips with her knees, holding his lower half close even as he moved his upper body away. Resting one hand against the bed for support, with the other he cupped her throat. The motion made her eyelids flutter open so she could stare at him. Using it to ground himself, his supporting arm bulged with muscle as he fucked into her, slow and deep, but the other delicately traced the lines of her neck, up to her jaw, her cheek and the jut of bone under her eye.

She stared at him, her attention focused entirely on him, watching as blue bled into gray when arousal hit him. It took her a second to realize why. Luke had come up behind him. She could see the mop of hair in need of a cut, see some faint bruises on his upper torso, but that was it. Josh blocked him out. Her eyes lost focus as Josh quickened up, but she heard the telltale slurping sound of the lube and knew what was happening, what was about to happen.

Her head fell back as Josh tightly clasped her throat with his hand. He squeezed down, enough to make her gasp for air, but what made her cry out was when he moved his torso against hers once more, and he pressed his lips to the skin his fingers didn’t cover. As he took her air from her, he robbed the little she had left when he sucked down against the tender flesh, raking it with his teeth.

She was blind, could only make out colors, but over Josh’s shoulder, she recognized the blur that was Luke and felt the muffled groans against her throat as Josh’s pleasure made itself known.

Josh began to rock his hips in quick, jerky motions. It had been a long time since Luke had touched him like this, and he was always notoriously quick when he was on the bottom. Luke had just come, so he’d probably take a bit longer, but not Josh. As she felt the deep throbbing pulse in the tight snug of her cunt that came seconds before Josh clamped his teeth down against her throat, marking her as his, she heard Luke roar his release as well, belying her earlier thoughts about his recovery time.

Though Josh had come, he continued to rock, knowing that when he softened up a bit, her pussy could accept him more easily. He hit places that made her cry out and rubbed others that made her want to flinch at the sensitivity. But it was only knowing that the three of them were connected, united once more, that she could let herself float away, float to the place only these two had ever let her explore. And she did so safely, securely. Supremely aware that no matter what happened, these men would die to protect her.

Because that was the depth of their love.

Chapter Nine

“This has resolved nothing.”

Josh could only pant by way of response. At least, at first. When silence still reigned in the bedroom, he realized both of them were waiting for him to answer.

With a groan, he reared up and with that move, gently nudged Luke aside. He hated being on the bottom, but had known the first time Luke and he came together it would have to happen this way. Maybe for the next few times until their lives were back on track.

So many things were out of Luke’s control right now and handing it over to him when they had sex was a kindness and a means to bolstering his self-confidence.

Josh wouldn’t lie. He’d focused on clearing his lover’s name for a few reasons, but mostly, it was selfish. Luke was his strength. Ever since the day they’d met, ever since they’d become partners, Josh had depended on him in ways he never had with another living creature.

Not his family, and unlike Gia and Luke, he had a great familial base. His parents had been surprised but in the scheme of things, not bothered by his coming out. His sisters didn’t particularly care either.

In comparison to Robert, his father-in-law, and Luke’s other siblings, his own people’s reactions had been anticlimactic. It was a damn shame it had worked out that way, because had he been exiled from the familial fold, he could have coped because he had Luke. Luke was his base. His foundation. While he wished it was the same for his lover, it wasn’t. Luke cared what other people thought of him, and the instant Josh had heard news of what had befallen his partner in Libya, he’d known he had to act.

The idea that people believed him to be a rapist would screw with the average man’s mind, but for Luke, it was a deathblow.

He sighed as he looked over at his other lover. It hurt that he had to put precedence on Luke, but there was no other way. It tore at his conscience, because if Luke held his heart, well, Gia shared that load. He loved her in ways he hadn’t believed he could love anyone other than Luke, and yet, he was having to send her away. It made him feel like a bastard, but he knew he had to prioritize.

Luke’s soul for Gia’s sense of self-respect.

The toss-up made his stomach burn, not only figuratively. He knew he had to head to the docs for more ulcer medicine. These last few months had played hell on his health. The stress of trying to keep it together, to clear Luke’s name, to find a solution, all while heading his unit and keeping to his usual, hectic schedule had taken their toll.

It sucked to admit it, but he was getting too old for this shit. He couldn’t work twenty-hour days anymore and not feel the pinch. He couldn’t go out on a limb without said limb aching like a bitch the day after.

Getting old sucked.

He looked down at the woman he loved. Deep in Gia’s still-dreamy eyes, he could see the love she felt for both of them, but there was sorrow and disappointment. And if he wasn’t mistaken, betrayal. It was the latter that knifed him in the gut. He clenched his eyelids closed, swallowing down his self-directed anger, and mumbled, “What would you have me do? Either of you?”

“Let it drop.” Luke pressed a hand to his back. His palm was cool against the sweaty heat that had settled along his spine. He groaned a little as he moved, then, after settling at Gia’s side, breathed a sigh of relief at being supine before whispering, “Let this whole thing drop.”

Josh shook his head. “I can’t do that. You’re an innocent man. And this goes further than you and us now. Harrison has broken international laws, and he’s broken the trust given to our Armed Forces. He’s had people break into my office to cover this shit up. How am I supposed to let that go? How can Jarvis let it go?”

“He’s right, Luke.” Gia’s voice was shaky. “We can’t let this carry on. It’s your duty to see that corruption is blotted out of your battalion. I-I’ll be fine. I promise.”

Luke gritted his jaw, and at that moment, Josh felt for him. He truly did. More so than he had the last month or so since his partner’s return.

Justice and the truth meant shunning the woman they loved, the woman they adored and the mother of their child, to some backwater hotel. It meant hiding her away as though they were ashamed of her, and it meant denying her access to her child for however long the appeal ran.

Bastard.

He deserved the title. He deserved her hatred for this, but he couldn’t let it go. He…he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry, Gia,” Josh whispered.

He clenched his fists, his fingers working as they sought action, anything to make this go away, but it wouldn’t.

It might not seem a lot what they were asking her to do, but the undertones were there, and they were enormous.

This past year had shown them all how hard it was to live in a household such as their own in a modern, intrusive society. There were highs and there were lows, and the pitfalls they had to traverse were merely adding up.

At his words, she nodded, but he spied the tremor in her bottom lip and was scalded with remorse and regret. She’d do what she had to do to protect them all, but would that protection undermine the key foundations of their family?

Only time would tell.

* * * *

“Why’s your mother holding this emergency Sunday lunch?” Gia asked, peering at Josh as he scowled at a driver who had almost sideswiped him. She could sense his need to flip the other driver the bird, but somehow he managed to cage it rather than liberate his middle finger.

“God knows,” he grumbled. “I wish she’d given me more notice, though—I’d have finagled a way out of it. It’s not often I can get a free Sunday, and I don’t like wasting half of it driving up to see them.”

“No, you prefer them to waste their time.”

“That’s what retirement is about. Plus, what’s the use in that death trap of an RV if they never get to use it?”

She ignored that weak argument to murmur, “It has to be about one of your sisters. That’s the only time these emergency lunches take place.”

“I’ll bet it’s Janice. She always was a pain in my behind.”

Gia snorted, amused as she always was at this side of him that always popped out when he was around or was thinking about his madcap, fourth-generation-Italian family.

In retrospect, knowing how protective Josh was of his
famiglia
, regardless of his bluster, she guessed she should have expected to be exiled the instant news had broken about Luke’s discharge. Defending the ones he loved was bred into Josh like his adoration for pasta and red sauce. Did that make it easier to cope with? Nope, but these two weren’t the only ones who knew their duty.

Sucking it up, as she’d been doing for the past few weeks, she retorted, “Like you weren’t a pain in Janice’s ass. In fact, I know you were. She told me you scared off the love of her life.”

“How could he be that if I managed to get rid of him?” He ceased glaring at the driver who was trying to overtake him to take a moment to wink at her. “She doesn’t want to admit I did her a favor.”

“Oh that’s what you were doing…I’ll be sure to tell her that the next time she visits and drinks a bottle too many of Chianti!”

“You do that. And next time, tell her to bring her own wine.”

She chuckled, rolling her eyes at his antics before looking around the housing district where Josh’s parents lived.

Luke and Lexi were in the backseat, discussing that morning’s chapter of Harry Potter. The pair of them had always been close, but with the visits to his parents’ farm and the daily reading sessions, they were closer than ever. It came as a relief to her that he had someone to buddy down with. She kind of wished it was her, but she’d gone way past that point. She wanted him sane, and if Lexi grounded him, then that was freakin’ fantastic.

The tires squealed as Josh moved around a tight bend in the fairway that led to his parents’ home in the suburbs. She was always grateful the four of them lived off a dirt track, on a plot of land surrounded by trees and forests, when she came to Laurie and Dave’s home. The neat-as-pin yards, the hedges pruned to within an inch of their lives, the cars perfectly polished and shining in the sun…the sheer regimental nature of life in a highly residential area was cloying for her.

It should have appealed to Josh who certainly appreciated order, but he liked his privacy too much. If it meant living twenty minutes away from the nearest state road, it was worth it. For all of them.

Kids had congregated out on the streets and were playing ball at one end, while others were on their bikes, racing up and down like maniacs as they enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures. It was hard to believe Christmas was approaching, but this year, they were blessed, and Gia wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She half wished Lexi was the sort to go out and play, to enjoy the last hours of freedom on a sweaty Sunday afternoon before Monday hit and school started up again for the week.

As one kid went down, his bike skidding, bloodying up his leg with a nasty gash, she recalculated that wish. Not that the kid minded apparently. He was up again, racing down the lane almost as though nothing had happened.

When Josh pulled to a halt, she looked back at Lexi, who wore a pretty frilly dress and lacy ankle socks with brown leather Mary Janes. She was getting better with the dirt thing, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. And truth be told, Gia liked her little fairy intact. No grazes or broken arms to worry about from roughhousing it. She had enough on her plate with the homeschooling without having to fret about Lexi climbing trees or being knocked over in a game of tag.

“You ready for the chaos of the Henderson house?” she teased when said fairy stopped chattering about what kind of wand she’d want from Ollivanders of Diagon Alley and pinkened when she saw her mother’s attention was on her.

At the question, though, Lexi grinned and nodded. She loved it there. Laurie and Dave spoiled her something rotten, mostly because she was the only girl of the bunch but also because she was the best behaved of all their five grandkids.

Not that Gia was biased or anything.

Amused at herself, she climbed out of the SUV and then opened the door for Lexi, who immediately hopped out. Luke was slower, and his pace was still strained as he rounded the car and hobbled onto the sidewalk. Physiotherapy was helping him get around easier, but his impatience wasn’t. Josh locked up, frown still puckering his brow as he approached the drive overloaded with his siblings’ cars.

“Why do we always end up on the road?”

At his complaint, Gia huffed. “Because we’re always late?”

Josh looked at his watch. “We’re right on time.”

“Yeah, but they’re earlier than us.” She put her hands on her hips. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, love!”

He grabbed her to him, holding her close before letting his palm slide down to cup her ass. He gave it a cheeky squeeze and growled in her ear, “I’ll show you where I’m a genius later.”