Authors: Emily Ryan-Davis
So, was she good?
The corner of Liam’s mouth kicked up in a half smile. “She’s better than.”
He knew her so well. Kat held Liam’s gaze another moment before shifting her focus back to Hunter. “Yeah, I am. I’m
so
good. After we eat, I’ll show you two how you can make me even better.”
Chapter Eleven
“Last box.” A week later, Hunter deposited a box marked DISHES on top of the tiny two-seater breakfast table tucked in the corner of Kat’s new kitchen. “Liam’s looking for somewhere to park the U-Haul trailer until we can return it tomorrow.”
Kat turned away from the sliding doors in time to watch Hunter strip off his jacket, revealing the long-sleeved T-shirt stretched across his muscular chest. Hunter and Liam had spent the afternoon emptying the U-Haul trailer. The condo was partially furnished but Kat had insisted on bringing her own bed. While Hunter and Liam hauled everything up the stairs to their new third-floor condo, Kat cleaned the place from top to bottom. By all accounts, Hunter should be showing signs of the exhaustion she felt. Instead, he looked energized.
“Thank you for today,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water and handing it to him. “Liam and I would still be dragging things out of the truck if we didn’t have your help.”
Hunter set the bottle aside. “Come here.”
Kat stepped into his arms without hesitation. Hunter drew her close and rested his chin on the top of her head. He didn’t say anything, for which Kat was grateful. Hunter had driven back to Jacksonville Monday morning so he could acclimate himself to the area and coordinate the in-person stuff required for finalizing the lease on the condo. She’d been apart from him for longer stretches in the last couple months, but Jacksonville was a hell of a lot farther than D.C. The distance had messed with her head. Now she needed this moment of physical contact, her breasts crushed against his chest, his heartbeat a reassuring thud under her cheek.
“God, I missed you,” she whispered. “I know tomorrow’s your first official day. Can you stay tonight or do you have to go?”
Hunter’s hands settled at her waist. “I haven’t exactly been enjoying myself without the two of you either. You wouldn’t be able to kick me out tonight. I brought the gear I need for tomorrow. I’ll head in from here in the morning.”
“Mmm, I was hoping you’d say that.” She rocked up on her toes to peck his lips. Hunter caught her by the hair and, when she would have backed away, held her in place for a deep, plundering kiss.
Working her hands beneath his shirt, she yielded willingly. Hunter groaned into her mouth. Turning them, he released her hair and seized her hips. The next thing Kat knew, her feet were off the floor and her back was against the refrigerator door. She wrapped her legs around his waist without prompting. His erection burned between them, hard and needful.
Hunter rocked against her, connecting with a spot that made her gasp. She pressed her fingernails into his chest, trying to get closer.
Breathing hard, he threw his head back and closed his eyes. “Fuck. This was a bad idea. This kitchen is too damned small for anything except making a sandwich.”
She laughed despite the frantic desire coursing through her veins. “Then put me down. I need to find the bed linens.”
He held her for another minute before gently lowering her to the ground. “I hope to hell the box was clearly marked.”
“Of course it was.” Kat ran her fingers through her hair and straightened her shirt, which had ridden up to bare her stomach. “I’m going to look for them. Why don’t you call for pizza or something? Liam will probably be hungry, and we’ll all want showers before the night is over.”
“I can do that.” Hunter pulled his phone out of his back pocket and propped his hips against the kitchen counter. “You have any special requests for dinner?”
She couldn’t help it. The bulge behind his fly drew her gaze like a magnet. She licked her lips. “No, just whatever. You know what I like.”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice deepening to a rumble. “I do.”
* * *
When Liam let himself into the new condo, the whole place was quiet. He removed his coat and dropped it on the corduroy-upholstered armchair that came with the condo. Kat’s low, sexually charged laughter filtered down the hall from one of the three bedrooms. Hunter’s deep groan hummed through the thin walls. Heat unfurled in Liam’s groin and his chest constricted, physical desire and emotional need manifesting at the same time.
After locking the dead bolt, he dropped his shoes on an old towel, which was already wet from the slush that had melted off Hunter’s boots. The domestic sight cinched the band around his chest a little tighter.
Despite the cramped third-floor space and the nasty snow that wasn’t really snow at all, he had a good feeling. Trading Baltimore and the life that was Liam and Kat for Jacksonville and the life that could be Liam and Kat and Hunter was the best move he could have made.
Drawn to Hunter’s indistinct murmur and Kat’s breathless moans, Liam navigated around the stacks of boxes and headed down the hall. He found Kat and Hunter in the master bedroom. A few cardboard boxes were open, their contents in disarray. Kat sprawled diagonally across the newly made bed, her feet planted on the mattress, her knees raised and spread to accommodate Hunter’s hips.
Hunter had his hands buried in Kat’s hair, using the silky length to hold her head in place while he ravaged her mouth. Kat moved subtly beneath him, moaning and grinding her pussy against Hunter.
Liam’s cock stiffened with interest. He briefly considered joining them, but before he could advance into the room, someone knocked on the door and rang the bell three times in quick succession.
Kat stiffened. She curled her hands in the material of Hunter’s shirt and turned her head to break their kiss. “I think that’s dinner.”
Her breathless words licked down Liam’s spine like a physical touch.
“Shit.” Hunter dropped his forehead to her chest.
“I’m here,” Liam said. “I’ve got it.”
Leaving Hunter and Kat to get it together, he backtracked to the living room. A few minutes later, Liam had paid a delivery driver for what smelled like Chinese takeout. He closed the door with his elbow just as Hunter entered the room. Kat was a few steps behind him, her hair finger-combed behind her ears but obviously mussed by Hunter’s hands.
“Hungry?” He held up the bags.
“Starving.” Kat took the bags from Liam and handed them to Hunter, who cleared a space on the old-fashioned coffee table. While Hunter unpacked the white cardboard cartons, Kat slid her arms around Liam’s neck and smiled up at him. “How are you feeling?”
“Horny as hell, even before I heard you moaning down the hall.” Liam pulled her close and claimed her lips, where Hunter’s flavor still lingered. Kat’s hum of appreciation did good things for him. The curve of her belly against his cock did even better things. His stomach had other plans, however, and growled accordingly. He reluctantly raised his head. “I also feel like I could eat a horse and sleep for days. You?”
“Surprisingly similar.” She leaned against him with a sense of comfortable familiarity that hadn’t wavered even with Hunter in their lives. “Hunter helped me make the bed and I unpacked some towels. Shower is clean, water is hot and the bed—uh, well.”
“The bed works well,” Hunter said. He sank onto the couch with a pair of chopsticks and a carton of lo mein.
Kat gave Liam a squeeze before easing away. “I’m going to get some forks. I’m too hungry to bother with the chopsticks.”
He let her go and watched her walk into the kitchen before he dropped onto the couch beside Hunter. The cushion sagged until his knees were higher than his hips.
“Just like college,” Hunter remarked.
Liam looked around, once more cataloging the stacks of boxes and the aged, mismatched furniture. “Yeah, in some ways. Not every way, though.” He pressed his thigh against Hunter’s leg meaningfully.
Hunter didn’t respond immediately. He leaned forward, set the lo mein carton on the coffee table and braced his forearms on his thighs. Glancing at the kitchen, where Kat grumbled out loud as she searched for the silverware, he said, “Is she going to be unhappy here?”
“She might be unhappy with some aspects, but if you think she’s going to turn tail and move back to Baltimore just because someone painted the bathroom orange, think again. She wants the three of us to be together. I think she would downgrade a lot more than this in order to make that happen.” Liam spread his fingers over his knees. He cocked his head, listening to Kat’s noisy rummaging, and grinned. “Anyway, the place doesn’t matter. Kat could turn a paper bag into a home.”
Hunter opened his mouth but the noise from the kitchen stopped abruptly and Kat reappeared in the kitchen door.
She triumphantly brandished a fistful of forks and three cereal bowls. “Forget the paper plates and plywood chopsticks. We have the good stuff right here.”
Liam relaxed back against the couch while Kat settled on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. Home sweet home.
* * *
The first night in North Carolina, Kat woke in the dark, her nape damp with sweat and her heart racing. Liam slept to her left, sprawled on his stomach with his arms curled under his pillow. Hunter was stretched out to her right, his thigh heavy across her legs. His chest rose and fell against her shoulder. Both men drew deep, steady breaths, sleeping undisturbed.
Since she couldn’t leave the bed without disturbing Hunter, she gingerly pushed her hair aside and tried to find a cool spot on her pillow. The furnace was working overtime. Light from the small parking lot pushed between the slats of the vinyl blinds, painting a pattern across the ceiling and the far wall. Sleep eluded her. She missed the sounds of the city, even as muted as they had been in Hampden.
She didn’t regret the move even for a minute, but she would be lying to herself if she claimed to be one hundred percent happy with her new living arrangements. A half-furnished outdated rental on the third floor wasn’t her first choice. It wasn’t even her tenth choice, but pickings were slim on such short notice and with her desired proximity to Camp Lejeune. There were better options farther afield but she hadn’t moved out of state to be with Hunter, only to settle into the same situation they’d had in Maryland. If the price she paid for easy access to Hunter was a sub-ideal condo, it was a comparatively small price. Slipcovers on the living room furniture, new curtains and fresh flowers would go a long way toward sprucing the place up. And God, someone needed to adjust the thermostat.
Kat eyed the vinyl blind covering the window and bumped new curtains to the top of her mental to-do list. Cheered by the prospect of shopping, she carefully rolled onto her side, trying not to disturb Hunter. He shifted his leg and worked his knee between her thighs, but his breathing didn’t change. With a tired yawn, she tucked her hands beneath Liam’s pillow, buried her nose in the curve of his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Outside, a loud engine roared into the parking lot. Kat jolted, startled by the sudden noise. The engine was still running when a car door slammed. A second slam was immediately followed by a man’s shout and a woman’s shrill response. When glass shattered, Hunter stiffened behind her. Liam slept on.
“They’ve been out there for a few minutes,” she whispered.
Hunter ran his hand over her hip and nudged her toward Liam before disentangling and leaving the bed.
“What’s going on?” Liam’s voice was thick with sleep. He wrapped his arm around her hips and drew her against him as he rolled onto his side.
“People down in the lot.” Kat fitted her hips against his groin and relaxed back against him. She enjoyed having Hunter in bed with her and Liam, but after so many years of sleeping only with Liam, she definitely had her preferred comfort spots. Right there, tucked against him like they were two matching spoons, was where she liked to end her days.
Liam spread his fingers across her abdomen and nuzzled her nape. “Probably just getting home from the bar.”
Another shout rang out below and one of the car doors slammed. Hunter didn’t move away from his spot in front of the window, where he parted the slats of the miniblind with two fingers. “Dude’s leaving,” he said.
“Will you open the window a little, Hunter? I’m roasting in here.”
“In a minute.” Hunter remained by the window until the engine’s obnoxious rumble faded into the night. When quiet blanketed the complex once more, he propped the window up an inch before returning to bed and stretching out on his back. “Go on back to sleep.”
“I’m not tired anymore.” Liam used his fingertips to draw a light circle around Kat’s navel.
She smiled as Liam’s cock stirred against her bottom. Reaching across the narrow space, Kat trailed her fingertips across the muscular ridge of Hunter’s thigh. “He’s really not.”
Hunter’s muscles bunched. Liam swept his hand higher, pushing her camisole up until it bunched above her breasts. A finger of cool air reached across the room, pebbling her nipples. Liam’s touch tightened them into stiff peaks.
“You’re not tired anymore either, are you, Kitty-Kat?” Liam rolled one nub between his thumb and forefinger. Her indrawn breath answered that question.
A few inches away, Hunter shifted and lowered his arm from where he’d folded it behind his head. Kat watched as he adjusted his cock, which was already stirring beneath his cotton shorts.
“Not tired at all,” she murmured.
Liam kissed the curve of her shoulder. “Good, because I think Hunter and I need a little show before we go back to sleep. Why don’t you pull your panties aside and play with your pussy for us?”
Hunter’s breath hissed between his teeth and his dick popped through the fly of his shorts. Kat couldn’t make out details in the dark, but the rigid shape was unmistakable, and Hunter didn’t try to hide it. He wrapped his long fingers around the thick shaft and turned his face toward her, his eyes glittering in the dark.
More interested in feeling than talking, Kat wordlessly responded to Liam’s suggestion by bending her knee and sliding her hand between her thighs. The thin crotch of her boy shorts gave way easily and a moment later, her sex was hot and exposed. Liam adjusted his hips and his cock slid along her inner thigh, close to her heat but not touching. She grazed his shaft with the backs of her fingers as she stroked her inner folds with a delicate touch.
Masturbation was usually not her chosen route to release, so she was surprised when her body responded so readily to her own touch. Her nerve endings were alive, excited, and she coaxed a hot flood by doing nothing more than drawing a circle around her opening.