Chapter Twelve

 

 

 

The new foal rose up on shaky legs as it tried to stand for the first time before tumbling back into the soft bed of hay.

Charlie watched, bursting with pride at the life she had helped bring into the world. She couldn’t ever remember being as happy as she was at this moment. She had spent most of the day and night before in the arms of the most loving, tender and mind-blowingly talented men. Her body bore the delicious aches in all the right places, as well as a few dark marks left behind when Kegan and Trevor had tried to prove who could mark her best. She still had many questions for them both, but none had to be asked right away. She just wanted to enjoy every precious moment she had with them and worry about tomorrow later.

Warm hands wrapped around her waist and heat radiated at her back as the scent of dark musk and spice enveloped her. Trevor. It amazed her that after only a couple of days she could tell them apart just from their scent alone.

“You about ready for lunch?”

Charlie turned in his arms, pressed a kiss to his lips. “Depends on what we’re having.”

He spun around, clasped her arms around his neck and pulled her into a piggyback hold. “You.” He chuckled and headed back to the house.

She was still laughing when they walked into the kitchen and nearly ran into Kegan.

 

Kegan had watched the two of them walk across the yard to the house tickling each other, both full with laughter. It amazed him how quickly Trevor had fallen completely head over heels for Charlie.

It really shouldn’t be that big of a surprise, since Charlie had affected him like that since she’d first entered his life, but Trevor was more of the ladies’ man than he was. Though they had talked about settling down, he hadn’t really thought Trevor ever would. He’d loved their life as the most talked-about bachelors around, loved the chase and the conquest. Then again, he hadn’t come across anyone like Charlie until now.

Neither noticed Kegan standing in the door until they nearly knocked him over. He leaned past Trevor and placed a kiss to Charlie’s lips.

“I have to say, the sound of you two laughing has got to be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.” He licked at her lips, coaxing her to open to him.

As soon as her lips parted, he dove in and devoured her mouth. The taste of her on his tongue was a powerful punch to his growing arousal. The sensation of Trevor’s warm breath against his throat, hearing him inhale deeply, made his own breath catch and his heart race. He moaned into Charlie’s mouth, nearly staggering back from the intensity building in him. Trevor’s hand snaked out and caught him around the waist as he swayed slightly.

“Shit, don’t fall over,” Trevor drawled, pulling Kegan closer to his body. Their erections touched and they both jerked at the contact.

Just as Kegan tried to pull back from the contact, Charlie grabbed him around the neck, pulled him deeper into the kiss and his body tighter against Trevor’s. It was as if a freight train had slammed into him. The sensation of Charlie’s warm, sweet tongue battling his coupled with the rock-hard bulge pressed against his own sent waves of lust rolling off him with such a force it was difficult to breathe.

“Bed. Now.” The low, guttural voice blowing heat against his neck pushed Kegan’s excitement even higher.

He ripped his mouth from Charlie’s and stepped to one side as Trevor tightened his grip on Charlie’s thighs and headed for the stairs. Kegan stayed right on his heels and fought to get his body to slow the fuck down or he’d lose it in his jeans before he even made it to Charlie’s room.

 

Trevor couldn’t believe the heat that surged through his body. He had never experienced anything so powerful in his life. His body’s reaction to Kegan being pressed up against him was shocking.

Whenever they had shared a woman in the past, they’d avoided contact with each other. The few times that it had happened, they had both jerked away reflexively. Yet when they were with Charlie, the feel of her body combined with Kegan’s felt like the most natural thing in the world. It just felt right.

He let Charlie ease down his back until she sat on the edge of the bed, then turned to her and placed a deep, possessive kiss to her parted lips. Her response was gentle, yet demanding.

This was intimacy, the beginning of a possible lifetime of kisses. Warmth spread through his chest as he felt Kegan’s presence next to him. He broke the kiss, let his lips brush across her cheek and up to the soft spot below her ear, giving Kegan room to place his own kisses to her lips.

Trevor spoke into the warmth of her neck, placing soft, open-mouthed kisses between words. “You smell like sunshine. Sweet grass. And unfortunately, horses.”

Charlie giggled. “I thought you liked the smell of horses?”

“I do, but I don’t want to lick one.” He nipped at her ear. “But I do plan on licking you. All of you.”

She shuddered as he pulled back, grasped the hem of her shirt and pulled it up over her head in one swift movement. “Kegan, want to go get that shower started?”

“One step ahead of ya, Trev.” Kegan was already strolling to the bathroom, his clothes leaving a trail behind him.

Trevor reached for Charlie’s hands and encouraged her to stand. He watched her bright green eyes as he helped her out of the rest of her clothes.

She was so amazing, so giving.

He fought the urge to throw her back on the bed and bury himself deep in her sweet, sexy body. He pushed her toward the bathroom, nearly drooling as her tight, perfect ass swayed before his eyes and mesmerized him. He shucked his own shirt quickly and practically ripped his jeans off as he followed behind her.

Kegan helped Charlie into the shower while Trevor slipped in behind her and joined them under the warm spray coming from the wall of showerheads. His eyes were riveted to the water droplets sliding down her creamy skin. He reached out to unravel her tightly bound braid as Kegan washed the front of her body.

Trevor skimmed his hands down her skin, and her silky hair brushed his fingertips, the length of it reaching the top of her ass. As he washed her long locks, he encouraged her to lie her head back against his shoulder, her chest pushed out in open invitation to Kegan, who jumped at the opportunity.

Kegan lowered his head, caressing the swollen nubs with the tip of his tongue. Charlie’s lips parted on a moan, and Trevor covered her mouth with his in a deep, devouring kiss. His urgency matched hers. A bite or suck counteracted each stroke of his tongue as the kiss deepened.

On and on it went until the pulse pounded in his ears and the need for air forced Trevor to break the kiss. His lips swept over hers as they breathed each other in. He loved the sweet taste of her.

Charlie’s eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she panted. Her body trembled and arched into the greedy friction of Kegan’s mouth against her sensitive breasts. Her slim fingers fisted in Kegan’s hair, held him close as if he were her lifeline.

Trevor watched, enthralled by Charlie’s parted mouth, as her tongue darted out to lick at her bottom lip. The urge to have that kiss-swollen mouth wrapped around his shaft made him mindless with lust. Trevor moved his hand down her body until it brushed the thin curls of her sex.

As he grazed the tip of her clit with one finger, Trevor felt Kegan’s hand move down to meet his. His big hand covered Trevor’s and together they let their fingers slide down to part her sweet, wet lips. Their groans mingled as they felt how wet and needy she was.

Each plunged a finger in her tight sheath, and Charlie cried out at the penetration, her hips jerking to meet their touch. As he and Kegan increased their thrusts, Trevor drew the pad of his thumb in tight circles around her swollen clit. Tremors wracked through her body.

“That’s it, baby. Let go. Come for us.”

As if his command was what she was waiting for, she tightened around them and cried out as her orgasm ripped through her.

Kegan raised his head from her neck. “Damn, girl, I’ll never get enough of you. I love it when you come for us. Knowing we make you fly makes me so damn hard.”

Trevor’s cock twitched wildly. Charlie did things to his body that no one had ever done and he marveled at it. Her innocence mixed in with a healthy dose of eagerness had him in a perpetual state of need—the necessity to not only to claim her body but also her heart as thoroughly as she had claimed his. He brushed his mouth against the pulse throbbing at her neck and pushed his hardness against the water-slick skin of her backside.

“Do you feel what you do to me, Charlie, how badly I want you?” He turned her head toward his and touched his lips to hers. “I want to feel this full, sweet mouth wrapped around me.”

Charlie’s eyes lifted a little to look at him seductively under thick lashes in wanton invitation.

They turned her in their arms. Kegan placed one hand between her shoulders and encouraged her downward while he grasped her hip with the other and forced her to bend at the waist.

Trevor fisted his shaft, stroking it in long, easy pulls as he moved his engorged head toward her and allowed his arousal to paint across her bottom lip. As he teased her mouth, Kegan gripped his own shaft and rolled a condom down its length, then teased it along the crease of her ass in a slow, gentle caress before he entered her.

As Charlie’s clever little tongue hit the bundle of sensitive nerves at the underside of the head, Trevor’s eyes locked onto Kegan’s and the bliss he saw on his best friend’s face surely mirrored his own. They stared at each other in awe as they both thrust into Charlie slowly, an unspoken acknowledgment of the perfection of this moment in their synchronized dance.

As their pace increased, Charlie began to squirm and thrash between them. Constant moans vibrated against his thickness and caused his balls to tighten up against him.

Never taking his eyes off Kegan, he grunted. “Ah Christ, I’m not gonna be able to hold back much longer.” He groaned as Charlie swallowed him deeper and hummed while electrical shocks raced through his body.

Kegan pushed deeper into her, then froze as his mouth went slack and eyes dilated. Trevor was pushed to the edge of ecstasy by the unadulterated pleasure on his best friend’s face.

White heat flashed through his body like molten lava as his orgasm ripped through his body and shattered him into a million little pieces. He roared his release, felt and heard Charlie join him.

As he floated back to his body, Trevor stared at Kegan and Charlie. He knew that at a deep emotional level, they’d affected him as nothing else in his life had ever accomplished.

He belonged to them. Body, mind and soul.

 

* * * *

 

Charlie sat on the bed between Trevor’s spread thighs, Kegan’s head lying in her lap. She loved the feel of Trevor’s fingers running through her hair as he brushed her damp locks. She ran her fingers through the silky strands of Kegan’s pale hair. He looked so peaceful and sated as he stared at her. His sapphire-blue eyes made her melt with a look of reverence, made her feel cherished.

She traced her fingers down his long elegant nose, across his full lips and down to his strong jaw, then ghosted across his cheekbones. Her emotions swirled and a feeling of giddiness came over her as she stared down at this delicious sun-darkened god of a man who looked back at her as if she were the most precious thing he’d ever seen. Not to mention the other godlike creature snuggled up against her.

“Why do you do it?” Charlie asked as she continued to trace Kegan’s face with her fingers.

“Hmm? Do what?”

“Share.”

Kegan closed his eyes. “It just sort of happened one night.”

Charlie could see the pain on Kegan’s face, the lines around his eyes tight and drawing his brows into a frown. He stayed quiet, breathed deeply for a long moment. Charlie began to wonder if he was going to continue or if he was simply going to leave it at that. Just as she decided on the latter, Kegan opened his eyes to look at her with so much pain rolling off him, so palpable, that it was nauseating.

“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. I shouldn’t have asked.” She wished she hadn’t. The beauty of the moment they’d shared had been shattered by some ugly past memory.

Kegan sat up in front of her, petting her thighs with light touches. “No, it’s okay. You have a right to ask.” He seemed to struggle with his thoughts for a moment, then continued. “One night Trevor met this feisty little thing that wanted us both and it just sort of happened. We realized we could give so much more pleasure to a woman together than we could alone.”

The blasé comment didn’t explain the pain and anguish she had seen. Charlie’s insides tightened and her heart broke at the bleak sorrow, the agony she had seen in his eyes.

How did he bear that kind of pain without it consuming him? Her hands itched to touch him, pull him into her arms and take away whatever hurt him. The way he held his body tight and aloof told her he wouldn’t welcome her touch right now. He was fighting hard to bury some deep memory, desperate to portray a calm, uncaring façade, but failed miserably.

She looked back at Trevor, who stared at Kegan with such understanding of his pain, as if he knew exactly what had put it there. She realized in that moment that Kegan did indeed share everything with Trevor. Not just work, a home or women, but the secrets in his soul.

Charlie waited, hopeful he’d continue to explain why he looked so pained. She wanted to know the secret that he obviously shared with Trevor. After a long silence, she concluded he didn’t feel he could trust her enough to share those same memories with her, and the pain of that knowledge was so violent, it nearly crushed her. The control she kept over her emotions that she had allowed to loosen at the commands of these two overwhelming men began to rebuild anew. She was the queen of denial.

Hurt Charlie and she smiled. Break her heart and she turned that smile to brilliant.

She patted Trevor’s thighs. “Well, sounds like it must have been one hell of a night.” She leaned over and gave Kegan a chaste kiss on the cheek. “I’m gonna go out and check on the new foal. I’ll see you boys at dinner.” She didn’t look at either of them as she scooted off the bed, grabbed her clothes, then headed for the bathroom.

“Want some company?” Trevor asked.

“Nah, I think I’d like the alone time, if you don’t mind.” She was proud of the way her voice sounded so calm and didn’t give away any of the turmoil that raged through her.

Charlie managed to hold onto her control until she made it out to the barn. She really didn’t have any reason to be upset with Kegan. He and Trevor had spent years together and shared everything. Nothing like the stupid school crushes like the one she’d had on Kegan. He hadn’t shared his secrets with her back then, why would he share them with her now?

Envy ate at her. She had been living in a fantasy world to think that it would work between all of them. Charlie had never been able to maintain a relationship with one man—she had been a fool to think she could with two.

Did she really need thirty days to prove the inevitable?

If she stayed that long, it would probably just make it that much harder to walk away and would hurt a hell of a lot more. She had spent the last eight years of her life learning to live without Kegan. She knew she could do it again. She hated the idea of going back to the unemotional coldness she had wrapped around her heart in order to do it, though.

But what choice did she have? If Kegan couldn’t share the love and the pain in his heart, then there would always be a barrier between them. She couldn’t accept half a heart. She wouldn’t be an outsider to the closeness that Kegan and Trevor shared.

“Hey, Charlie.”

Charlie turned to see Cade headed her way and smiled, happy for the distraction to her thoughts. “Hi, Cade.”

He leaned on the stall door next to her. “She’s a beauty. You did a great job helping that mare. I didn’t think she was gonna make it through the birth.”

“Thanks. To be honest, I didn’t think she was going to either. I think we have to thank a higher power than me, though.”

Cade shook his head, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You’re too modest. You did a damn fine job. The ranch is real lucky to have you during this foal season.”

Charlie turned her head away and stared at the foal. She had to stay. Not only had she promised the boys she’d stay the full thirty days, but she would also ruin her program if she left. It would be hard as hell trying to start another one next year, especially if word got out that she’d walked away from a ranch after sleeping with the owners. Her career would be over. But staying with Kegan and Trevor was a very bad idea.

“Cade, is anyone staying in the guest house?”

“No, ma’am, not that I’m aware of. Why?”

She ignored his puzzled look. “Would you show it to me?”

“Something wrong with the room the bosses set up for you?”

Yeah, it’s right next to the bosses.

“No, it’s great. I just think I’d like to be closer to the stables, is all. I hear it’s set up with monitors and alarms wired directly to the foal stalls.”

“Yes, ma’am, it is. Sure, I’ll show ya and help move you in if you need a hand. Ain’t been fireworks at the ranch in a mighty long time.” He gestured toward the door, a devilish look in his eyes. “Right this way, Miss Charlie.”