Three Rings and a Rose (8 page)

Too busy adjusting the MP3 player, Ella didn’t notice that the bathroom door was only partially closed, and she was so totally lost in her actions that she didn’t realize that steam was wafting outside of it.

Whipping around, she butted the door with her ass and propelled it open. Then she lifted her eyes, whirled her body around, and barreled inside. She took all of two steps before coming to a dead stop.
Oh my, my, my. Micah—he’s wet…and hot…and naked…and
aroused. Fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck.

Ella felt her jaw drop as her eyes wandered over the wide-eyed man standing next to the shower stall. And for the first time in her life, she was speechless. She couldn’t think of some witty comment or a random smart ass remark or even a naughty innuendo. Her power of speech disintegrated, and she was lost.

Micah appeared to be in the same state of shock she was in. He merely stood on the spot, frozen to the tile floor. He didn’t move or speak. He just gawked at her as she shamelessly ogled him.

And Ella willingly admitted to herself that her gaze was shameless. Eyeballing every glorious inch of his moist flesh, her control snapped, and she started going toward him like her feet were commanding her and not her mind. With each step, her arousal amplified, and her pussy dampened. The tender walls of her core drew up, the ache so profound that she was ready to beg him to assuage it.

But just as suddenly as she’d begun to move, she stopped. She froze. Her breathing stalled, and her heart skipped a beat. She
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couldn’t do this. She couldn’t throw herself at him—not matter how marvelous his body was. The rippling muscles, the tapered waist, and the lean lines of his hips were magnetizing. His huge dick was awe-inspiring, but this wasn’t right. He was gay. He wouldn’t want her. He would reject her, and it would break her—all of her. That thought alone was like a bucket of cold water to her face.

Backing up quickly, she skittered out of the room, moving faster than she’d thought possible. It was a good thing she wasn’t clumsy.

Otherwise, the things she’d bumped into and the objects she’d knocked over would have had their wicked way with her, and she would have ended up sprawled on the floor.

By the time she spun around and dashed out of the room, Micah seemed to recover. He followed close behind her, jogging to keep up.

But she refused to glance back because she knew that he was still in the buff. He hadn’t had the time to dress himself—not even with a towel—as he’d chased after her.

So like a coward, she didn’t look back. She kept going until she stormed into her bedroom and threw herself on the bed. Panting like she’d run a mile, when in reality it had only been a few feet, she pulled the headphones over her head and flipped on the most raucous song she could find in a hurry. She slid the volume button up, turning the music onto full blast, and closed her eyes then pretended to not hear the man on the other side of the door imploring her to let him in.

With a sigh, she attempted to push the image of Micah’s naked body out of her head. Only it didn’t work. All she could see, all she could think of, was Micah. She knew that it would never change.

From now until forever, her lust for him would dominate her thoughts.

It had been bad enough being in love with him. But now, she was head-over-heels in lust with him, too. She was fucked—royally and truly fucked. She couldn’t change it. She wasn’t sure she would have anyway because he’d just provided her a lifetime of fantasies. If she
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was going to be a lonely old spinster, at least she could fantasize about Micah.
And Caedon.
That would be enough for her. It had to be.

* * * *

Present day…

A masculine clearing of the throat returned Ella to reality, and her gaze flew to the man who’d done it, but Caedon wasn’t looking at her.

He was staring at the hand on her hip, his eyes boring a hole into Micah’s skin. She saw the resentment rising in Caedon, yet he made no snide comment like he would have before.

The jealousy and possessiveness that had always sparked between the two men over her was in his eyes, but he didn’t give into it.

Instead he ignored it. He raised his eyes, the regret evident in the slow dragging movement, and responded to her earlier remark. “It’s too damn bad you don’t want me here for you because I am, and I won’t let anything or anyone keep me from you.”

Micah’s hand on her hip tightened, his grip turning painful as he dug his fingertips into her skin. Unable to keep from looking at him, she allowed her eyes to stray toward him. She watched him from the corner of her eyes. But since she couldn’t see him well, she turned her head and gazed at him.

His pained expression caused her to flinch, yet she saw more than hurt in his eyes. She saw anger—a deeper, darker fury than she’d ever seen before. She wasn’t sure whether it stemmed from the fact that Caedon was here for her or the fact that he wasn’t here for him.

Sliding a comforting arm around his waist, she waited for him to respond. And she waited for Caedon to continue. When neither of them said anything, she told Caedon, “You don’t have to worry about anyone or anything keeping you from me. You need to worry about
me
keeping you
from me.”
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“Ah hell.” Caedon dropped his foot to the floor with a
thump.

Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his knees and frowned. “I know I fucked up, sunshine, but it was a two-way street.”

“I know that,” she snapped while Micah continued to remain mute. He eyed both of them, his intent gaze flying from one to the other then back again. She squirmed under his scrutiny, but she went on. “I was as bad as you were, but that doesn’t change a thing. We still shouldn’t be together.”

The last five words hurt to say, and she had to force herself not to flinch, but it was the truth.

“Why?” Caedon asked, watching her carefully. “Can’t you forgive me for what I did? Don’t you still love me?” Of course, she could forgive him. She already had. And hell yes, she loved him and always would. But she couldn’t forget about what they’d done to each other.

Memories of the night that had started the chain of events that destroyed their relationship flooded her, and she allowed herself to get lost in the past.

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Two years ago, June 1st…

Ella laid her head against the back of the onyx stone tub with a lengthy sigh. A nice, long soak was just what she’d needed to distract herself from missing Caedon. He’d been gone a full week now, and she’d spent every night alone in their giant bed.

If it weren’t for Micah, she would have probably been driven to the brink of insanity by the deathly silence around her. But now he wasn’t home, and she was alone in the huge penthouse she shared with both Caedon and Micah.

When they’d bought it together last month, she’d been thrilled because it was everything she’d ever dreamed of, and she got to share it with her best friend and boyfriend. Every day, she got to get up and drink a cup of coffee Micah had made just for her, and she had the pleasure of dressing herself in a closet that most women would kill for. Every afternoon, she came home and cooked a decadent dinner in the exquisite kitchen that was fit for a cooking queen, and then she got to eat the food at a lavish table with the two men she adored. And best of all, every night she crawled into this tub and soaked for a full hour while staring out the floor-to-ceiling window and watching the lights twinkling off the buildings around her. If she was good—which she usually was—Caedon would join her in the water, and they would make love until they were sated and ready for bed.
Life couldn’t get
much better than this. If Caedon and Micah were here, my life would
be flipping perfect.

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Sighing again, she lifted one leg and wiggled her toes. She admired the pretty pink nail polish she’d applied that morning for her photo shoot and tried to not dwell on her loneliness. Her life was too damn good to waste time thinking about any of the negatives.

Besides, Micah would be home in a few hours, and Caedon would return in a few weeks. She would survive.

Ring.
The sudden, unexpected jingle of her phone made her jump, but she didn’t mind because she knew who it was.
Caedon.
He called her at this time every night. Most of their recent calls had ended in phone sex, which they both enjoyed immensely. She just wished she’d confessed her proclivity for dirty talk sooner rather than later.

They could have been steaming up the phone lines months ago when he travelled for this job or that one.

Before she could even reach for the phone, her pussy responded knowingly, and she had to swallow a moan. Snagging the wash rag next to her quickly, she dried one hand then answered his call. “Hey baby. I was just thinking about you and your big, hard cock sliding into my wet pussy.”

Caedon’s deep chuckled came over the line. “Oh really? Well, I was imagining what it felt like to push my aching cock inside you and pump it into you until you screamed my name.”

“Bring it on,” she murmured cheekily, her voice dropping to a throaty tone. As she switched the phone to her other ear, she didn’t pay any mind to the moisture on her left hand. She could buy another damn phone if she had to. Right now, she was more focused on the man she was talking to and the tingle in her pussy.

Ella slipped her hands under the water, her fingers going to one of her favorite places to play—her nipples. The pointed nubs were at full attention, demanding for her ministrations. And she gave one of them her undivided attention. Tweaking her nipple, she moaned. “Oh, God, Caedon. I miss you.”

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“And I miss you, sunshine,” he replied. “I miss spending time with you. I miss talking to you. God knows that I miss making love with you.”

Caedon’s sensual voice washed over her, and her cunt melted. Her quivering core gushed moisture for him, preparing for the orgasm that was coming for it. Unable to wait any longer, she glided her fingers down to her pussy and penetrated herself swiftly with three fingers.

“Tell me what you would do to me if you were here.” She heard a shuffle over the line as he obviously got comfortable for the long, lusty talk ahead of them. Closing her eyes, she visualized him naked and aroused. She saw him taking his thick cock in his giant hand and masturbating. “I would take your mouth with mine, and I would kiss you until you couldn’t breathe. Then I would drift downward, nibbling on your neck and the top of your chest before settling on those tight nipples of yours. I would lick them exactly the way you like me to. Then I would suck them into my mouth and…Shit, my phone is ringing.”

“Ignore it,” she said, “
please.
”

But before either of them could continue, her phone rang as well.

“Fuck, there goes mine, too.” Distracted by the sudden stalling of their sexual talk, her hand paused, but she didn’t retreat. “We need to answer it. Something might be wrong. I’ll call you right back.”

“Yeah,” he agreed then he was gone. And so was she.

Hanging up, she switched over to the other call and murmured,

“Hello,” her irritation plainly evident to whoever was on the line.

“Do you have a comment about the video and photographs that a man named Joseph McLemore released to the press only an hour ago?” an unknown woman asked before bombarding her with a half dozen more questions. “Who’s Joseph? What’s he to you? Who threw the party? Where was it? Who was there? Can you give me any other details?”

Startled, Ella jerked upright, pulling her fingers out of her pussy abruptly. “What?” she screeched. But she already knew the answer.

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She knew exactly who Joseph was, and she knew what the woman was speaking of. Only she’d had no clue that there was a video or photos of the night her boyfriend had convinced her to go to a party that had quickly spun out of control.

She’d been naïve and in love. Or she’d thought she was, and she would have done anything to make Joseph happy, even attend a party when she hated those kinds of events. So despite her initial hesitation about partying it up with people she didn’t know, she’d gone with him. However, she’d had to haul her ass out of there after a mere ten minutes. The drugs, alcohol, and massive orgy had left her cold, disgusted, and very, very alone.

Instead of continuing her conversation with the reporter who was trying to get the scoop, Ella quietly hung up and called Caedon back.

The phone rang several times before he finally picked up and blasted her. “What the fucking hell did you think you were doing at a party like that?”

She gasped at his bluntness. This was a man who’d always been kind to her. He’d never been anything but loving and sweet, and he hadn’t talked to her this crudely, this aggressively before. She’d known there was a gruff, dominant side to him, but he’d never exposed her to it—even though she would have loved for him to. She finally got to see the rough around the edges side, and he was pissed off at her.
Jackass.