Leaf, Erin M. - Tango Trio [Dream Marked 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

Tessa frowned. She could sense how much he was leaving out of that narrative. “You left a lot out.”

“Yeah, I know. I think after the bonding it won’t matter,” Jared said. He rubbed at his forehead, and Tessa felt an answering tap of pain in her temples. It was growing worse. She rushed to tell the rest of her story, short version.

“After John died, I moved here. I needed to get out of the city. I started a consulting company. I design people’s websites, and they pay me. I work from home.”

Jared nodded and turned to Parker. “I went to school for architecture. After my brother was killed, I needed to build things. So much was torn down that day. I worked a bunch of odd jobs after graduation, then a few years ago I became the construction manager for a firm in Bethlehem.”

Jared nodded again then turned to Tessa. She let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding as his eyes met hers. She saw the wildness of the bond rising in him and felt an answering arousal as she licked her lips. This was it. Parker gasped, and the scent of the two men thickened again. Tessa’s body went cold, then hot. Her fingers and toes tingled as Jared stood up.

“I don’t think we can wait anymore. My bedroom’s this way.” He turned and walked down a dark hallway on the far end of the room. Parker surged up and looked hard at Tessa. When she got to her feet, he let her lead the way, following on her heels, but Tessa knew that didn’t mean she was in charge. The beast prowling inside her body and mind was.

Chapter 5

Parker’s skin prickled as he followed Tessa out of the room and down the hall. He sniffed, trying to get used the scent of Jared’s musk drifting on the air like expensive cologne.
Damn
. Parker wanted to taste him so bad. He imagined what it would be like, touching another man sexually for the first time, but his brain shied away from the picture. He simply had no idea what it would feel like. This wasn’t something he felt prepared to deal with. When Tessa paused in the doorway, Parker shuddered. Jared was in the bedroom. Tessa was right in front of him. The urge to claim them both was overwhelming. He’d have to get over this nervousness because there was no way he could hurt Tessa. Or Jared, strangely enough.

“I don’t think I can be patient any longer,” Jared said as he kicked off his shoes. Parker’s eyes drifted away from Tessa’s perfect ass to the long length of Jared’s legs.
Jesus
. The man was gorgeous. Jared undid the button of his pants. Tessa whimpered and walked forward, rubbing at her arms. Parker noted that her bonding tattoos were almost discernible. He lifted his arms and looked down. Was that—? No. No way. He toed off his shoes and walked into the room. Why would their tattoos look like paw prints?

By the time he reached the bed, Tessa was already in Jared’s arms, kissing him almost desperately.
They don’t look like strangers. They look like lovers about to lose each other
. A pang of determination shot through Parker at the thought.
No way are we going to lose each other on my watch.
Strangely, he wasn’t the least bit jealous. Instead, the low simmer of his arousal flared at the image of Jared and Tessa together. He loved the sweet sounds she made as Jared stroked her tongue with his. Parker watched Jared slip his hands into the top of her halter dress, unsurprised when his dick began to throb against the zipper of his jeans. He had to get the damn things off, or he was going to pass out.

“Yeah, good point. My pants are killing me, too.” Jared panted, pulling away from Tessa. She moaned and rested her head on Jared’s shoulder.

“Yeah, okay,” she said after a moment, looking up and catching Parker in the act of pulling off his T-shirt. Her eyes burned.
She looks feral.
Parker’s dick grew impossibly harder. He wrestled with his zipper, cursing his body for being so difficult.

“Easy there,” Jared soothed in a low voice. Parker flinched then relaxed as Jared slipped behind him and helped him work the metal teeth open. Parker’s cock flared out, pressing against the soft fabric of his boxer briefs. Jared moaned, leaning on the larger man. For the first time in his life, Parker felt another man’s hard-on against his body.

“It won’t be the last time,” Jared whispered then moved away, letting Parker deal with the rest of his clothes by himself. He couldn’t get them off fast enough. Even Tessa’s heated look wasn’t enough to make him fumble. When he kicked away his underwear, he stood and stretched, his cock bobbing in the air. He watched Tessa swallow, and grinned. Then Jared divested himself of his pants and pulled off his shirt, and it was Parker’s turn to swallow. The man was gorgeous. When Jared smiled and began helping Tessa remove her dress, Parker forced himself into action, ignoring the last little pangs of uncertainty. He moved to the bed and knelt at Tessa’s feet. He wanted to lick up her whole body, starting with her toes until he reached her lips. His hands shook as he reached out, slowly pulling her panties down and off her legs. Parker inhaled deeply, savoring the fresh scent of her arousal. When he glanced up, he found that Jared was just pulling her dress over her head. Tessa’s small, pert breasts bobbed as she lifted her arms, then disappeared between Jared’s hands.
God. That’s just beautiful.

“Please, please,” Tessa murmured, and Parker rubbed his face against her thigh, enjoying the way it made her writhe.

“Tessa, you smell amazing,” Jared said, his hands slipping down her torso. His right hand dipped into her pussy and rubbed at the moisture. Parker had a front-row seat to the most erotic thing he’d ever seen. A drop of pre-cum slipped down his cock. When Jared’s fingers separated her labia, exposing the sweet, pink nub at her center, Parker’s control wavered. He had to taste her. He locked eyes with Jared, who nodded, then bent in and licked at her pussy until his tongue reached the delicate nub. He flicked at it, trusting in Jared to hold Tessa upright. She writhed, and he sunk in farther, sucking her clit into his mouth and gently licking at it. Her climax hovered on the edge of his mind, teasing him. Dimly, he wondered what would happen when she came, but before he could really speculate, her orgasm crashed over him in a wave of pleasure so intense his body seized up.
Whoa
. The world went white as his cock jerked, spurts of cum jetting out onto his thigh as his mind blurred from the pleasure. He was shocked. He’d just come and neither Tessa nor Jared had even touched him!

* * * *

Tessa swam up from the depths of her climax, luxuriously sated. Loved. In the back of her mind, both Jared and Parker hovered, each of them separate but also part of her. Their scent was somehow stronger yet also now part of the background that murmured
home
to her senses. She opened her eyes, not surprised to find herself half on, half off Jared’s bed.

“Whoa,” she croaked then swallowed, trying to wet her throat.

“You could say that again,” Parker chimed in from somewhere on the floor. Tessa struggled to sit up, abruptly realizing that she had Jared’s spunk all over her back.
Um, ew
. She ran her fingers through her tangled hair. She felt sticky and wrecked but dismissed the negative thought when she realized that Jared’s cum smelled really, really good. Like caramel. Clearly she was losing her mind. Once she was up, she saw Parker on the floor, covered in the remains of his climax, his cock lying against his stomach, still mostly hard. Her pussy tingled at the sight. Damn, she thought, completely taken aback at the fresh arousal that suddenly rolled through her system.

Jared cleared his throat. “I don’t think we’re quite done yet.”

Tessa glanced at Jared, silently agreeing with him, then turned to her friend. “Parker, you alive?”

“Yup.” He grinned up at her. Tessa smiled back then frowned when she realized she could feel the ache of Jared’s hip injury. She swiveled around on the bed, eyeing the man sprawled behind her. His dark, curly hair was mussed, but his eyes were mischievous, belying the pain she sensed in his hip.

“Jared? Are you okay? Why does your hip hurt like that?”

Jared grimaced and absently rubbed at the scars Tessa just now noticed ran along his right hip. They were silvery, old. She reached out and ran her fingers down them, ignoring Jared’s shiver.

“It’s nothing. Just my old injury.” Jared shifted himself farther up the bed, fluffing some pillows and settling down against the headboard. That relieved the ache somewhat. Tessa watched lean muscles move under his smooth skin. He was smaller than Parker, his strength more understated. His chest was nearly hairless, but his strong jaw and stubble more than made up for any apparent lack of masculinity. He was gorgeous, despite the scars. Tessa felt Parker get up behind her and wipe down with his T-shirt, and then the bed dipped, and he was crawling up to lay beside Jared. He handed the cloth to the smaller man, and Jared used it to wipe himself off before gently cleaning the small spatters from Tessa’s back. He tossed the shirt in the direction of the door and sighed as he lay back down. The sight of the two men lounging against each other sent a pulse of heat through Tessa, which she ruthlessly fought down. They could have more sex in a moment. Right now she wanted to know what happened to his hip.

“Okay, okay,” Jared said, exasperated as much as amused as he sensed her unspoken determination to find out what happened. “Close your eyes.”

“What? Why?” Tessa retorted.
If you think you can sidetrack me—

Jared cut her off. “No, I’m not trying to sidetrack you. I just think it will be easier if we use the bond. I read somewhere that bond-mates can sense each others’ thoughts. Clearly we can hear each other think.” Parker nodded at that, and Tessa let her irritation settle. “It’ll be easier to show you in here”—Jared reached down and tapped her on her forehead—“than to explain it with words.”

Tessa stared at him for a moment then nodded and shimmied up the bed, settling between the two men. She tried to ignore the way they felt against her, warm and solid and slightly wild. Down, girl! Tessa thought, catching Parker’s amusement in the back of her head. At Jared’s urging, she relaxed against him and closed her eyes as he began feeding her images of that long-ago mission.

It was night. The woods were alive with the enemy, so I paid careful attention to the display on my night-vision headset. My patrol was deep inside the North Korean border, looking for the defectors my sources told me would be waiting at the tower checkpoint. I hoped we’d be able to find them soon because the extraction time was creeping up on us. I nodded at one of the other soldiers then slipped through the trees until I found a clearing. I didn’t venture into the open. Was there an old tower across the space? I squinted, just able to make out the crumbling ruins on the other side of the meadow. The defectors should be waiting there. I hoped they were under cover.

When one of my teammates tapped me on the shoulder, cocking his head at the open space, I shook my head. Too dangerous. I couldn’t see anything threatening, but it would still be better to hug the tree line rather than walk into the open. I started to move along the perimeter, but before I could stop them, two of the patrol soldiers struck out across the meadow. Shit! What were they thinking? Then I remembered—they weren’t soldiers. They were civilians. Reporters embedded with the troops. They’d had some training but were too new to be allowed on such a delicate mission. I argued against including them, but my commander insisted, and I had no leverage. I was a consultant, not a full-time soldier, and I had no contacts in the higher-level chain of command that could’ve prevented this shit situation.

I frowned as I watched them move farther into the meadow. Damnit. I had no choice but to follow and try to prevent a disaster. I moved into the open, hoping to grab the reporters and direct them back to the tree line. Unfortunately, right before I reached them, all hell broke loose. I grabbed the two civilians and shoved them down to the ground, ignoring the protests of the one with the camera as the expensive piece of equipment crashed to the ground. After that, the clearing lit up. North Korean soldiers surrounded us. Thankfully, in my paranoia, I’d planned for this. The secondary team I’d had following us dropped out of the woods, sandwiching the Korean troops. Not that it mattered. It was too late for me. I felt a searing pain in my hip and realized I wasn’t going to be able to get up. I slapped my palm on the wound, hoping it’d missed my artery. It hurt like hell, but at least I was alive. I watched my team dispatch the enemy and locate the defectors who were, thankfully, uninjured. The reporters were fine, as well. My second-in-command appeared with a pressure bandage. Things were growing hazy, and I knew I wasn’t going to be conscious for much longer. As soon as the bandage was on, my teammate hefted me into a fireman’s carry, and I passed out.

Tessa opened her eyes, shaken. “You could have died.”

Jared nodded. “I know, but it was worth it. I wanted to help those people.”

“You don’t still do these missions, do you?” Tessa asked.

“No. I’m lucky I can still walk. The injury damaged the joint of my hip. It functions so I can do most things, but after the doctors cleaned out the fragments of bone, I ended up with an infection. That killed my chances for an artificial joint. The doctors were afraid the infection would spread. So they patched me up best as they could and sent me on my way.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I had to give up competitive dancing. I couldn’t extend my legs the way I used to. I can’t stay on my feet all day anymore.”

Tessa pursed her lips. She sensed what he wasn’t telling her—the shock when he woke up in the hospital. The agony of physical therapy. Then, on top of all that, the anguish he felt when he realized he’d lost most of his dancing capability. “I’m so sorry.” Tessa stroked his hip, lingering over the scars. “That sucks.”