Red Zone: Boys of Fall (10 page)

This couldn’t be it. It couldn’t be the end. She wouldn’t allow it. Like Oakley, she felt reckless, wild, panic-stricken. She was losing control and she hated it.

She had no idea how long she and Oakley would have continued, would have torn into each other, but it was Joel who ended it.

He gripped Oakley’s shoulder and held tightly. “Slow down, bro. You’re going to hurt her.”

Joel was right. But not in the way he meant. Oakley
would
hurt her. Not physically, but emotionally. She’d let them in. And now these men—both of them—had the ability to hurt her.

“I’m sorry, Sadie,” Oakley said, trembling above her. He rested his forehead against hers. “God. I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head. Refusing his words and her realization. If she didn’t think about it, it wasn’t there. She’d employed that philosophy for years and it had never steered her wrong. If she didn’t want to feel something, she simply put it away and didn’t feel it.

Instead, she concentrated on Joel’s hand, the way it still gripped Oakley’s shoulder. They were all caught in the silence.

Then Sadie understood. Joel felt the same fear she and Oakley did. None of them wanted this to end.

“I don’t want to stop,” she said at last, her voice sounding like a scream in the far-too-quiet room. For a moment, she feared they would misunderstand and think she was referring only to right now.

Oakley didn’t move, but he did smile. It was a tentative one, but it gave her hope. “I don’t want to either.”

Joel’s hand fell away, but he didn’t leave the bed, didn’t seek to move away from them. His eyes were dark but his face shuttered, unreadable. “Then we won’t stop.” His voice was expressionless. He might have agreed to continue, but Sadie knew there was a day of reckoning coming soon. For all of them.

Oakley dropped to his elbows and kissed her gently. Then he started to move. Unlike before, his thrusts were soft, slow. Wonderful.

Sadie had no idea she could find completion in something other than hardcore, knock-your-shoes-off fucking. Oakley and Joel kept proving all her previous misconceptions wrong.

Within minutes, she was there. Her orgasm helped along by Joel, who’d placed his hand between them, his finger gently stroking her clit. They knew she needed that extra touch and neither of them failed to offer it. In one short week, they seemed to know all her secrets.

Oakley came with her, her body’s undulations milking his climax, and for the first time in her life, she learned what it felt like to have someone release inside her. It was warm and sticky, and she knew right then, she’d never allow either of them to wear a condom again.

Another barrier they’d broken down.

Sadie resolved that would be the last, even as she knew that was a lie.

Again, she shoved the wayward thought away and let herself drift off to sleep, nestled between Joel and Oakley.

Joel stood next to Oakley outside the door to Sadie’s apartment on Wednesday and cursed himself for being the world’s biggest idiot. He shouldn’t be here, but he couldn’t stay away.

He and Oakley hadn’t seen her since Friday night at the bunkhouse. Since the night he let his best friend lick his cock and squeeze his balls.

Neither he nor Oakley had mentioned the incident. He suspected Oakley wanted to talk about it, but he’d been too afraid of Joel’s response. Oakley was right to be scared. Even now, Joel was torn between beating the fucking shit out of him or…God…pushing the man against a wall and demanding he suck his cock for real this time.

Now he was standing outside Sadie’s house, having let way too much go unsaid. His gut was telling him to walk away right now. Turn around, get in the truck and fall into a bottle of bourbon until he was able to forget Sadie and Oakley even existed.

The rest of him—his heart, head and dick—wasn’t going anywhere.

Sadie opened the door looking completely adorable.

A fact Oakley expressed through a wolf whistle. “Damn, Sade. I love these miniskirts of yours.”

His friend stepped inside the apartment, not stopping until he had Sadie in his arms. Joel had ceased wondering what exactly it was about watching Oakley kiss the girl Joel was in love with that turned him on so much. Some things, he figured, were simply meant to remain mysteries. Like whether or not ghosts were real, Atlantis had existed, and why the Texas Rangers couldn’t win a freaking World Series.

When the kiss continued with no sign of letting up, Joel walked inside and closed the door behind him. The sound of it drove Sadie and Oakley apart.

“Hi,” she said to Joel with a flirty grin.

“Remembered I was here, did you?”

She laughed at his joke and he realized why he was here. Because it was fun. It was easy. And because, despite all the shit rolling around in his head, he couldn’t deny that it felt right to be here. Like he belonged.

Joel had spent most of his life feeling as if he was a peripheral player. While he’d been a member of the Titans’ state championship, his position had been center. He’d basically snapped the ball to Tucker, then plowed into the first guy he saw. He’d done both jobs efficiently, but not in such a way that he got a lot of notice.

That seemed to be true of most things. Quite a few of his teammates had gone on to do amazing things with their lives—Tucker made it big in the NFL, Wade found success in Nashville, Jackson molded kids’ lives in the classroom, Carter kept Quinn safe as a cop and Colt ran a very cool horse-training business. Meanwhile, he was still working on Coach’s ranch, a position he’d started part-time while in high school. He’d gone nowhere and done nothing noteworthy.

“I didn’t forget you.”

Joel’s cock rose rapidly in response to her sultry wink.

Oakley, who thought with his cock and then his stomach—in that order—walked toward her kitchen. “I smell food, but I don’t see anything.”

Sadie had offered to make them dinner. “We’re not eating here.”

Joel adjusted his pants and stifled a groan. He wasn’t sure he could go out with Sadie and maintain any semblance of public decency. “We’re not?”

She shook her head and pointed toward her bedroom. “Dinner—and dessert—are in there.”

Joel grinned. She was the sexiest woman he’d ever met.

She started to walk toward her bedroom, but he grasped her hand and held her back.

“Not so fast,” Joel said. Sadie was clearly used to being the aggressor in her sexual encounters. She was also as submissive as the day was long. He’d recognized that need in her their first night together. Knowing no one had ever given her the challenge she longed for was one of the reasons he’d spent most of the past week walking around with a hard-on. He had a list of bedroom demands that would keep them busy for the next decade or so. “Take off your clothes.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes briefly. Just long enough that he thought she might balk. He secretly hoped she would. He was dying to show her how delicious punishment could be.

Then, as she had in the past week, she obeyed. It floored him to see such a powerful woman give herself over to him. Her skirt, blouse and bra fell away quickly. She hadn’t been wearing panties, a fact that delighted Oakley.

“Damn, I wish I’d known that when I was kissing you,” Oakley murmured.

Once she was naked, she looked at them, a spark of challenge in her gaze. “Your turn.”

Oakley didn’t hesitate. The man had two temperatures—freezing cold and boiling. He could be standing in line at the grocery store with nothing more on his mind than paying the clerk. Then a pretty woman—or hot guy—would walk by and the man would be raring to go. Joel had given him shit about it, but nowadays, he found himself in the same boat. One look from Sadie, the sound of her voice or even a whiff of her perfume, and he’d go from soft to steel in an instant.

Joel tried to keep his focus on Sadie as Oakley stripped off his shirt and pants. He’d seen his friend naked more times than he could count in the past eight years. After all, they shared a room and neither of them had any hang-ups about nudity. The difference was, seeing Oakley without clothing had never affected him before.

Even more disturbing was the idea of taking off his clothes in front of Oakley. His friend’s bisexuality had always been there. Always. But Joel had never felt as if Oakley was attracted to him.

Was he now?

If not, then what the hell was all that licking and touching about? Was Oakley just trying to make sure Joel got off too? Or had it meant something to him?

Once Oakley was naked, he and Sadie turned to look at Joel. Sadie looked impatient, but Oakley’s gaze was different. It felt like a dare.

Joel reached for his t-shirt and tugged it off. Then, before he could think of a reason not to, he kicked off his shoes and pants. Fuck it. He’d made his bed when he’d crawled into Sadie’s with Oakley. There was no going back now.

They followed Sadie to her bedroom. Oakley laughed loudly when he saw her bed, and Joel grinned. She’d laid a red-and-white-checkered tablecloth on top of her comforter and lit candles on the nightstands. In the middle of her makeshift picnic was a bucket of KFC, a huge bowl of McDonald’s French fries and a bottle of Don Julio.

“I forgot to mention,” she said, crawling onto the bed. “I can’t cook.”

“Tequila?” Joel asked, reaching for the full bottle of Blanco.

Sadie shrugged. “Tequila makes everything taste good.”

Oakley took the bottle from him, uncorked it and took a shot. “You got that right.” He passed the bottle to Sadie, who followed his lead. Then she sent the tequila to Joel. He took a swig, enjoying the heat of the alcohol as it slid down his throat.

He and Oakley joined her on the bed, the three of them talking and laughing as if it was the most normal thing on earth to be eating fast food while naked in her bed.

Once they’d plowed through the bucket and put a big dent in the massive pile of fries she’d bought, Oakley “cleared the table”, moving everything—except the tequila—to the floor.

“What should we do next?” Oakley asked, though the way he ran his fingers over Sadie’s breasts made it obvious what
he
wanted to do.

Sadie, however, had other plans. She pushed his hand away. “Nope. No wham-bam tonight.”

Joel scowled. “I’m fairly certain we’ve never done wham-bam.”

She laughed. “You know what I mean. We get busy and then we get off. We’re going to try that anticipation thing Oakley and I discussed.”

Oakley scowled. “Thought we agreed we sucked at that.”

“Which is why we need practice. I thought we could play a game.”

Joel looked at their naked bodies and joked, “I guess strip poker is out.”

Sadie giggled, then took another quick shot of tequila. “I want to play Truth or Dare.”

Oakley’s brows lifted in approval. “I like the sound of that. Can we make it Kinky Truth or Dare?”

Sadie handed Oakley the bottle as she rolled her eyes. “You have a one-track mind.”

Oakley took another drink. “Fine. Your game, you start.”

“Okay.” Sadie leaned against the headboard and looked at Oakley. It occurred to Joel she’d had time to consider her questions…and her dares. She was far too ready to play. “Oak. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Tell me about your first time.”

Oakley stretched out next to her, though the opposite direction, his head positioned at her feet. “Okay. With a guy or a girl?”

Sadie was undaunted. “Your
first
first. Was it with a girl?”

Oakley shook his head. “Nope. It was a guy. Friend of mine from school. We were sixteen. His name was Jacob.” Oakley’s gaze remained on Sadie’s face and Joel got a sense Oakley didn’t want to say more.

Joel was surprised to realize he didn’t know this story. He and Oakley had shared so much of their lives with each other, it didn’t occur to him until now that the one thing they didn’t discuss was Oakley’s affairs with guys. Had Oakley purposely avoided telling Joel about them? Had Joel somehow given him the impression those stories would make him uncomfortable?

“Details,” Sadie prompted.

“Jake was an oops. A late-in-life baby for his folks. Which meant he had a lot of older siblings who were adults. Jake was housesitting for his older brother one weekend. His parents had said it was cool for him to stay at his brother’s place to take care of the dog and stuff. I got invited to sleep over too. His brother left us a twelve-pack of beer in the fridge that Jake’s parents didn’t know about. Neither one of us really partied so it didn’t take much for us to get tipsy. Next thing I know, Jake’s kissing me.”

Sadie tilted her head. “Did you know then? Did you know you were into guys?”

Oakley nodded slowly and for the first time since he started talking, his eyes drifted to Joel. “Yeah. I always knew I wasn’t exactly like the other guys. My straight friends. They were all about girls, and while I could appreciate boobs as much as the other guys, I sort of got the same tingle whenever I caught a glimpse of a guy’s ass in the locker room. Jake was completely out of the closet, one-hundred-percent gay. A lot of the guys stayed away from him because that freaked them out, made them nervous. It didn’t bother me.”

“What happened then?” Joel was strangely aroused by Oakley’s story.

“Kissing turned to touching. Clothes came off. It wasn’t Jake’s first time. He put on a condom, filled my ass with lube and we fucked.”

Typical Oakley description. Straight forward, graphic language, nothing extra or flowery.

“You liked it?” Sadie asked.

Oakley’s grin grew. “I fucking loved it. Jake and I sort of kept going for a while, but he was a giver, not a taker, and not into girls at all. Six months later I was at a campground with my parents. We’d met and started hanging out with another family. They had a pretty daughter about my age. The two of us snuck out of the tents one night, started making out. One thing led to another and it was finally my turn to put the condom on.”

“And you liked it?” Joel asked.

Oakley laughed. “I fucking loved it.”

Sadie picked up a pillow and batted him in the head. “It occurs to me from your story, you clearly haven’t grown up a bit since high school. An eternal man-child. Peter Pan.”