The Space Between Us (23 page)

At the touch of Meredith’s hand on top of my head, I looked at her again. She leaned to kiss me. Put my hand between her legs. She was already slick and hot, and I pressed inside her just enough to make her shudder a little. She swallowed my breath when she moaned.

“Lie back,” I whispered into her mouth.

Her eyes fluttered open, the pupils wide and dark. I cupped the back of her neck to hold her to my kiss for a few seconds longer, then followed her to the bed when she did as I’d said. Straddling one thigh, I mouthed a trail of kisses along her hip and belly, but unlike ticklish Charlie, Meredith didn’t squirm. She threw an arm over her eyes and let her thighs fall open, giving me access to every bit of her.

I looked at Charlie, who’d rolled onto his side to watch. I touched his hair and cupped a hand under his chin to bring his mouth to mine. We kissed as I circled Meredith’s clit with my fingertip, but only briefly—I had other intentions for my tongue.

Sex with one person can be complicated if you want to get creative, but it’s still possible to sort of just go with the flow. See what happens. Roll around, find the soft parts, see what happens when you rub them against each other. Sex with two other people requires a little more thought. Sometimes diagrams can be helpful.

Sometimes we fucked like a V—both of us pleasuring Charlie and ourselves. We’d done the daisy chain, Meredith blowing Charlie, who gave me head while I did the same to Meredith. We’d even tried out some of those fancy positions from
The Threesome Handbook.
’Cuz see, that’s the beauty of three, the variations you can’t get up to with only two.

Now I settled on my hands and knees between Meredith’s legs, my ass in the air, my mouth on her pussy. I kissed her clit, then sucked it more gently than I’d sucked Charlie’s cock. Under my tongue and around my fingers, Meredith’s pussy was slick and hot. With the reward of her sigh, I smiled and pressed the flat of my tongue to her clit. Lick, lick, lick. Not too fast, maybe just a little too slow. Teasing. I wanted her to come hard, not quick.

Charlie ran a hand down the curve of my back, over my ass. Between my legs from behind to stroke my clit. He pushed a finger inside me, then another, and I closed my eyes. I sank into the sensations of warm woman beneath me and hard male behind me. I pushed back, fucking myself against his fingers.

He got the hint.

The bed moved as Charlie got up on his knees. I heard the mutter of the bedside drawer opening, the tear of the condom wrapper. His cock nudged at me, but I wasn’t quite wet enough yet for him to slide all the way inside. I didn’t have to worry about Charlie forcing anything, though; he popped the top on the bottle of lube and used a generous amount. His fingers slipped against my clit, then deep inside me, curling against my G-spot.

“Oh, God,” I murmured. I had to stop for a few seconds, my fingers moving inside Meredith in an echo of the delicious stroking of Charlie’s fingers, but I had to catch my breath.

She made a low noise of protest, her fingers finding my hair and twisting in the short strands. Not quite hard enough to hurt, but definitely enough to let me know I should get back to business. It was difficult to concentrate, though. Charlie’s thick cock nudged again at my entrance and I found myself automatically breathing out, opening myself to take him all the way in.

I blinked, biting my bottom lip, then managed to nuzzle against Meredith’s clit again. She was so hot, so wet, and her pussy clutched at my fingers as I fucked them inside her—but it was her clit that needed the attention in order for her to get off.

My name broke into two pieces on Charlie’s groan. He filled me, pushing in slowly until I couldn’t take any more. But he didn’t move right away, just put his hands on my hips and held himself in place while I lapped at Meredith’s clit. She was shifting under me, lifting her hips. Her arm still covered her eyes, but her mouth was open, lax, her tongue flickering out every once in a while to run against her lips. I caught the briefest glimpse of her face when I stopped to take a breath and acclimate myself to Charlie’s cock inside me, and she frowned and tugged at my hair again, pushing me against her.

I smiled against her clit. Charlie had said my name; my goal was to have Meredith not just say it but scream it. I wanted her to let go, the way she did with Charlie.

But then I was having a hard time thinking about anything else, because Charlie started moving. He found my clit with his fingertips, stroking in time to his thrusts, which were slow, steady and amazing. The lube meant his fingers rolled over my clit, never tugging or scraping at my flesh. Smooth. Even when his strokes grew a little ragged as his fucking got faster, it was still fucking gorgeous.

Meredith rolled her hips. Her pussy fluttered around my fingers. I lessened the pressure of my tongue, using the tip instead of the flat and letting her move against me.

Tension coiled tight in my gut. Pleasure, icy hot, trilled through me, in my pussy, down the backs of my legs, into the soles of my feet. I wanted so much for it to spill over, fill me up, break me down. But all I could do was ride it as it built and built.

Meredith came first. The muscles in her pussy bore down on my fingers. Her clit pulsed under my tongue. And she gave me what I wanted—my name, uttered in a hoarse cry. She was thinking of me in those last seconds when orgasm boiled up inside her, and that was enough to push me over into my own climax.

I didn’t say anyone’s name. I was made voiceless by the pleasure pushing its way through me. I shuddered with it, my fingers digging into the sheets. I gasped. I pressed my face to the inside of Meredith’s thigh, found the sweetness of her flesh with my mouth and kissed her there as I came.

Charlie, ever the gentleman, didn’t last much longer. He gave a last deep thrust inside me, then a couple shallower ones. Breathing hard, he bent to press himself over my back. I felt the brief brush of his lips on my shoulder blade before he withdrew so I could flop down next to Meredith, whose eyes were closed. She wasn’t moving—well, except for her mouth, which was twitching into a smile.

I kissed her shoulder. Charlie joined us on my other side, his arm over my belly so his fingers could rest on his wife’s hip. We stayed like that in silence for a few minutes, broken only when Charlie yawned. He stretched. He kissed my neck and got out of bed to pad into the bathroom. The hiss of the shower began.

I was ready to fall asleep, but I didn’t want to do it there. I had to work the early shift and knew Charlie would be getting up early, too. Meredith grumbled as I sat up. Her eyes didn’t open.

I kissed her shoulder again, then went into the bathroom to use the toilet and say good-night to Charlie. He peeked out the shower door.

“You coming in?”

“Nah, I’ll get one in my bathroom.” I did meander over to admire him under the spray, though. “Just came in to say good-night.”

He leaned to kiss me. “ ’Night. Hey, dinner out tomorrow? Maybe that new Indian place?”

“I thought Meredith hated Indian food.”

“She does.” He shrugged, soaping his hair and scrubbing at it. Suds formed and slid down his face as he tipped it under the water to wash them away. “But she’s got something going on, some party or something, tomorrow night. It’ll just be you and me.”

Just me and Charlie. Why did that make my heart skip in my chest, as if he was asking me for a date? “I love Indian food. Sure. Sounds like a plan.”

God, he had such a wonderful smile. It lit up his eyes. “Great! I’ll be home regular time.”

“I’ll be home before you. I’ll be ready to go.” I braved the spray to kiss his mouth, then laughed when he pulled me inside with him. “I said I’d take one in my bathroom!”

“You’re here already. Why not let me scrub your back?” Charlie wiggled his eyebrows. The lecher look didn’t work for him; I’d never be able to see him as anything but mannerly.

I turned, though. “Hmm. I guess I can’t turn that down.”

His soapy hands moved over my skin. With the sex out of the way, it was still nice to feel his touch. Nicer, in one way, because both of us knew it wasn’t going to lead to fucking. It was just…affection.

I was struck again with emotion. The casual way he turned me to soap my front, standing aside to give me a share of the water. Rinsing me. When he pulled me against him for a hug, my face pressed to his hot, wet skin, Charlie kissed the top of my head and I closed my eyes and willed myself not to burst into emotional tears.

It had been a long time that I’d gone without hugs. Plenty of love, yes. Some sex along the way, sure. But sloppy toddler kisses and grimy-fingered squeezes from Simone and Max aside, I hadn’t been with anyone I could just hold on to. Someone I could lean against.

The water would run cold before I wanted to get out of that shower, but that was silliness. I looked up at Charlie, whose back protected me from a faceful of water. I wanted to tell him how I felt, but the words wouldn’t come.

I loved him.

The realization of this didn’t hurtle into me and shatter, breaking me apart. It seeped inside me, filling all the places I’d never bothered to notice were empty.

How could I tell another woman’s husband I loved him? How could I tell just one of the pair? The answer was I couldn’t. I kissed him again, instead, and then let myself out of the shower, snagging his towel to dry off with, and handing him a clean one from the shelf. I wrapped the damp one around my hair and wished him another good-night, ready to pad naked through their bedroom and down the hall into my own, where I’d comb out my hair and put on my pajamas.

“Tesla,” Charlie said, halting me in the doorway. “Just so you know. I’m not ashamed of you. Of us, or this. It’s not about that.”

I’d almost forgotten the conversation that had started all this. “I know you’re not, Charlie.”

In their bedroom, I paused to say good-night to Meredith, but she’d already turned out the light and pulled up the covers. In my own room I stretched out with a luxurious sigh across my bed. For the first time in a long while, though, I thought of Vic as I tried to drift off to sleep. We hadn’t spoken since our fight. Right now he might be moving on silent feet through his dark house, checking windows and doors to make sure they were locked. Making sure his family was protected. I missed being part of that.

It took me half an hour of staring at the ceiling and counting endless bleating sheep to realize I wasn’t going to fall asleep unless I got out of bed and made the rounds of the house. So I did, because that’s what you do for the people you love—you do what you can to settle your mind that they’re safe. And then, after I’d made sure the burners were all off, the windows and doors secured, I finally crawled back into my bed and fell asleep.

Chapter 27

“H
ow hot do you want it?” The menu in Charlie’s fingers bobbed up and down as he looked it over.

“Hot as you can stand it, son.” I winked at him. “How hot is that?”

“Hot.” Charlie said it like a challenge. “I’m not sure you can stand it, that’s how hot.”

I humphed. “You’re on. You want to go nuclear? I’m down with that. How about volcanic—can you handle that?”

“Which one’s hotter? That’s what I want.” Charlie sounded dead serious, but he had a twinkle in his blue eyes.

“Let’s just tell them to go to ten. And bring lots of yogurt dip.”

“I always end up ordering too much food here. I like everything and I want it.” He studied the menu some more.

“Didn’t your mama ever teach you that having everything you want isn’t always the best thing for you?” I couldn’t help teasing him. I was tired after a long day on my feet. I was starving and a little giddy from being out and about with him. Just him.

It seemed a little wrong that this felt so different from the times the three of us went out, or even the few times Charlie and I had been alone at the house. It shouldn’t have. I’d spent tons of time alone with Meredith both before and after we’d begun this.

It still felt different.

Maybe it was because I had no doubts about how Charlie felt about me, or if it was okay for me to touch his hand across the table. I didn’t have to keep myself from touching him at all. Somehow this meant our fingers twisted together and my toes rubbed along the back of his calf.

“And it’s such a waste,” Charlie added. “You’re right, my mama would be ashamed. I never eat it all and can’t take it home.”

“Why can’t you take it home?” I was in the habit of ordering stuff at a restaurant for the specific purpose of taking half home to eat the next day.

“Meredith doesn’t like it.”

I could tell my expression had twisted, but I didn’t try to smooth it. “Huh? Why should that matter? She doesn’t have to eat it.”

“She says the smell makes everything else in the fridge reek, and she hates it.” Charlie shrugged, his expression not exactly twisting. More like scrunching. The face of a man who knows his wife is being sort of unreasonable, but who isn’t willing to bring on a fight.

“Huh. Well. That’s just silly. If you wrap it really tight in foil or something, it won’t smell at all. So order whatever you want, son, we gon’ get our chow on!”

He squeezed my hand. “Great. Your treat, right?”

“Guess again,” I told him. “You asked me out, remember?”

“Ah. Yeah. Right. Well, it’s a good thing I have a credit card and there’s a Home Depot next door.”

I laughed. “The credit card I get, but why do you need a Home Depot?”

“For the wheelbarrow,” Charlie said serenely.

“Okay, I give. What do you need a wheelbarrow for?”

He didn’t even crack a smile, though those eyes once more betrayed him. “To wheel you home after you eat everything we order.”

God, how I loved him.

With perfect timing, the waiter came over. True to his word, Charlie ordered too much food. Papadums and curry, lamb rogan josh and tandoori chicken. My stomach groaned just at the thought of it all.

“I’m starving,” I told him.

“Good.”

“And what we don’t eat, we will take home,” I added. It was sort of a challenge of my own.

Charlie looked reluctant, but then shrugged. “I do love leftover Indian food.”