SpareDick (12 page)

Damn. He made himself crazy. Kevin hated feeling helpless.
He was used to action, to getting things done and finding his own answers to
any questions he had. But for right now, he was pretty well stuck. The doc had
told him he wanted him to stay quiet for at least a day or two, longer if he
continued to show any symptoms. Right now, besides the pain, exhaustion was the
only thing plaguing him.

The door opened and his heart leapt. He knew Jill had come
even before she spoke. He’d always been aware of her in a way he couldn’t
explain—in the same way he was aware of Hell.

“Kevin?” Her voice was quiet, as if she feared waking him.
Then she must have seen him watching her. “Oh good. You’re awake already.
Adam’s in surgery. There doesn’t appear to be any damage to the femur, which is
what the bullet lodged against. They’ll leave it there and repair the tissue
damage.”

“Leave it there?” Kevin couldn’t help the incredulity in his
tone.

Jill smiled. “This is real, not a TV show. In most cases,
unless the bullet’s pressing against something to cause problems, it’s less
traumatic for the patient to leave it. The body will wall it off, maybe
eventually even push it close enough to the surface that Adam can have it
removed if he chooses.”

“So how long should this surgery take?”

“An hour or so. They’ll beep me when they move him to
recovery. We’ll go there and wait for him to wake up. I told him we’d be
there.”

“We?” Kevin hated the uncertainty in his voice, but he
didn’t want to read too much into her behavior or the Adam Gregory message
they’d gotten earlier. He wasn’t sure if he was getting Jill the nurse or
Jilly—his wife. “You and me?”

She nodded, still standing way too far away from him for his
liking. She looked nervous, which was exactly how he felt. The gulf between
them was still there. He had to say something, had to find a way to make her
understand. He prayed it wouldn’t come to making a choice between her or Hell.

“Tell me what happened,” she said, coming closer to his bed.
When she sat next to him, Kevin closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling her
clean scent. If he lived to be a hundred years old, he would never forget the
way she always smelled.

“We connected the body found Sunday to another one found ten
years ago and both of them to Addy Brown. When we looked at all the evidence
again, plus some new things we found, we made the connection to the head of
Addy’s high school English department.”

“You were shot by an
English teacher
?”

“That would be making a long story really short, but yes.
The guy owned a farm on the north end of the county. Hell and I decided to
check it out. When Sarge told us Shelby wasn’t at his house in town, we used
caution, but we were already out of the car. We had decided to enter the house
and barn to search and were doing so when he opened fire. He caught me in the vest,
I knocked Hell down and smacked my head. The next thing I know, Hell’s got me
back around the side of the house, out of the line of fire, but he’s taken a
bullet to the leg. My phone’s dead and his is cracked. I was supposed to cover
him while he made it to the car. The only problem was Shelby had moved. Hell
had finished calling everything in when all of a sudden I see him raise his
pistol as if he’s going to fire straight at me.”

“At you? Why would he shoot you?”

Kevin closed his eyes. “Shelby came up behind me, about to
blow my freaking head off. Instead Hell shot him. The bullet meant for me
missed and slammed into our car.”

She took his hand. Warmth spread through him and he opened
his eyes to stare into her deep blue ones. “All I could think was I’d never see
you again to tell you how damn sorry I was and how much I love you, Jilly.”

She held his hand in hers and bowed her head until it
touched their clasped hands. “I reacted in anger—and embarrassment—Sunday
morning. I did the same when Adam tried to talk to me, but he did get
through—what he said and what he left unsaid. I’ve had time to think. I’m so
sorry.”

“About what? You had every right—”

“No, I didn’t. Looking back on it, I see you were both
trying to give me what I wanted at the same time you satisfied your own safety
concerns. I didn’t take your reservations into account. All I thought about was
me, what I wanted, and I didn’t listen to you.”

“I should have told you.”

“Maybe. Even worse, we’re both guilty of using Adam, not
thinking what impact bringing him into our bed might have on him.” Jill sighed
then met his gaze, her own wide and honest. “I want you to move back in.”

Kevin thought of his partner, of the help Hell would need.
“What about Adam?”

Jill worried her lower lip. “I want him to come home with us
while he recovers.”

Kevin watched her. “And after?”

“I’d like him to stay. You know, I made love with him again
while you slept. It was then I realized we weren’t just living out a fantasy,
but everything went so wrong. I guess what happens now is really up to him. I’m
not sure I could forgive me if I were in his shoes. Can we just see how things
go?”

Such immense relief washed through him, he laid his head
back, tears trickling from the corners of his eyes. “Shit. This is getting to
be a habit.”

Jill brushed his tears away. “You can blame it on the
concussion if you want. They can make people pretty emotional.”

He smiled at her. “Good idea, except I’ve been a train wreck
since you kicked me out Sunday.”

Jill’s beeper chirped. “That’ll be Adam coming out of
surgery. Let me find a wheelchair and I’ll get you to recovery with me. Maybe
then we can all get back on track.”

* * * * *

Waking up felt as though he were fighting his way from
beneath the surface of the ocean, complete with the roaring waves and the
gritty eyes. Part of him was ready to give in to that roaring darkness. He was
tired and it was too exhausting.

“Come on, Adam, wake up.”

He remembered the voice. Jill.
Kevin’s
Jill. Adam
kept his eyes shut. He didn’t want to wake to a world where he would lose Kevin
and Jill.

“Dude, she knows you’re awake. Open up.”

Kevin was with her. They were together. He forced himself to
open his eyes, to face whatever would come—the inevitable
Thanks for saving
my life. Now my wife and I are back together again and you’re out in the cold.
A calloused palm touched his forehead. Adam wanted to turn toward Kevin’s
touch. Instead he forced his eyes open, giving his brain a moment to adjust and
his vision to clear.

They were both right beside him. Kevin sat in a wheelchair,
his head bandaged and his breathing a little shallow. Jill sat in a chair next
to him, one hand twined with Adam’s, the other with Kevin’s. They were both
there—with him. His glance strayed to the throbbing in his thigh.

“My leg…?”

Jill squeezed. “You’ll be fine. You need some time to
recover.” Her glance darted to Kevin for an instant. “We’d like you to do it at
our house.”

His throat was so tight, all he could do was nod. His whole
life, Adam had stood on the outside looking in and now the door opened so he no
longer had to remain an observer. He could grab his courage and step through.

“Are you sure?” His voice was no more than a croak.

“None of this is sure,” Kevin rumbled, “but we want you with
us.”

Jill wanted to see Adam without Kevin there. There were
things she needed to say to him, get out on the table just between them. She
had taken Kevin home last night. Other than monitoring him and making sure he
stayed quiet, there’d been no reason for him to stay in the hospital. Adam was
a different matter.

He’d managed to lose a lot of blood between the wound itself
and all of the movement he’d done getting Kevin to safety then radioing for
help. They could thank their lucky stars the bullet hadn’t hit his femoral
artery. Jill doubted there would have been any chance to save him. The far more
likely scenario would be that both Adam and her husband would now be dead,
killed by Grady Shelby.

So here she was now, ready to grovel if she needed to.

She pushed the door, already ajar, wider open. The room was
dimly lit. Adam slept, his lean face softer in slumber despite the beard growth
darkening his jaw. Jill pulled a chair close and sat next to him. Unable to
help herself, she brushed back the hair falling over his forehead. He was still
a little cool to the touch and she knew his body still struggled with the blood
loss. They’d given him some, but recovery still took time.

“Hey.” His voice was raspy and dry.

“Hey to you too.” She started to pull her hand back.

“Leave it.” He turned his cheek into her palm, and his
eyelids fluttered shut. Jill stroked her thumb across the dark circles beneath
his eyes, and her chest ached.

“I sent you email,” she murmured, “but I’m guessing you
didn’t get a chance to see it.”

“No.”

“It was an apology and an explanation.”

His eyes fluttered back open, the depths dark with
weariness. “Can we not do this right now?”

Jill stroked his hair again, taking a shaky breath. “Listen,
please.”

He gave the faintest nod.

“I was so wrong. Once I got past the deception—and I even
understand that now—I could see how amazing that night was. There was a
connection between you and Kevin that was awe inspiring. I felt it with you too
when we were together. I don’t know, maybe I was a little jealous or a little
frightened by it, so I lost it when I found out that not only did you know each
other, but you were his partner. You see him more than I do every day.”

“He loves you.”

Jill let out a heavy breath. “He loves you too. I can’t deny
him what he wants.”

Adam watched her, his expression flat. “What do
you
want?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I want us to start over again,
this time honestly.”

He turned his face slightly away and inhaled deeply. “I
don’t want just Kevin, you know.”

The tears fell. “I’ve finally realized that. I should have
known it that night. I didn’t expect this, but I can’t ignore what I feel
either. Will you come home with us?”

She captured his strong, calloused hand and held it in hers,
waiting for his answer. Her heart thumped. When he finally nodded, Jill pressed
her lips to the back of his hand. “Thank you.”

* * * * *

Adam refused to be wheeled into Kevin and Jill’s house after
getting out of the hospital, even though he had to stop between the car and the
door to readjust his crutches and catch his breath.

“What’s up?” Kevin inquired mildly, looking back over his
shoulders.

“Damn, Ramsey, I’m as weak as a freaking kitten.”

Jill opened the door. “I heard that, but it’s your own fault
for insisting you do without a chair. Between the bullet and the blood loss,
did it ever occur to you your body’s in shock?”

Adam stared past Kevin at Jill’s shiny blonde hair. He felt
the stupid grin splitting his face and couldn’t stop it. God, she was
beautiful—how much had really hit home when he’d watched her shedding tears
over him while she sat in his hospital room. Oh shit, she was getting ready to
help him inside as though he were a tottering old fart. She’d reached his side
and just as he was about to snap and tell her he could do it himself, she
smiled at him.

“Hi,” he mumbled, only vaguely aware of Kevin’s snort in the
background.

“Hi yourself, Adam.” Jill kissed his cheek. When he stared
at her, she blushed. “I’ve got your room ready if you want to lie down or you
can lie on the couch and watch the Panthers game. I thought maybe you and Kevin
would rather do that.”

He cleared his throat. “Football.” Raising his gaze, he
found Kevin. “Have I said thanks?”

Kevin grinned. “Ad nauseam. Come on, Hell, let me help you
in. Kickoff’s in ten minutes.”

With Kevin on one side and Jill on the other, he stepped
into the kitchen then made his way to the den. He wondered how long the three
of them could last. Deep inside, the feeling lingered that all this was simply
gratitude.

At halftime, when Jill bustled to refill his drink, he
stopped her with a touch to her wrist. “I’d feel better if you two would quit
treating me as though I were a guest.”

She was on her knees next to him in a second and wrapping
her arms around him. “I can’t help it. I’m so glad you’re here. I want you to
be comfortable.”

Adam bent his head so he could bury his face in her
sweet-smelling hair. Kevin sat and put Adam’s feet and calves in his lap,
moving his legs very carefully to avoid jostling his injury. “Give it some
time, Hell. Relax and let Jill fuss. I went through this two days ago when she
brought me home. It’s what she does.”

Jill stuck her tongue out at them and Adam thought it was
the most adorable thing…Jeez he was crushing bad on this woman. One glance at
Kevin and it was obvious he knew it too.

“It’s all right, dude,” Kevin murmured. “We didn’t invite
you for platonic reasons.”

Adam sucked in a deep breath, feeling a stir in his groin,
surprising given the amount of painkillers he was on. “Damn, in a normal,
drug-free condition, hearing you say so might actually give me a hard-on. As it
is, there’s only weak twitching happening there.”

Jill laughed. “The drugs will wear off.”

Her expression grew serious, her gaze roaming over him, and
the look on her face made him catch his breath. Please, God, let it be more
than gratitude for saving Kevin. She leaned in, her slender hands cupping his
face, beard stubble and all, before she kissed him. The slow, lingering
movement of her mouth on his was nevertheless as hot as he might have wished.
This was no casual thanks-for-being-our-friend kiss. It was definitely the kiss
of someone who’d like to get him in the bedroom and naked, not necessarily in
that order.

What surprised him most was feeling Kevin’s hands slowly and
deeply massaging his feet. When Jill’s kiss ended, Adam met his partner’s gaze.
The sexual heat he saw reflected back finished the job Jill’s kiss had started.
Christ, he was hard, painkillers and all.

Jill’s fingers stroked his chest and drew his attention back
to her.

“I can take care of it for you,” she murmured.

He glanced at Kevin, who grinned at him. “Watching you get a
blowjob would beat this football game hands down.”

Jill kissed Adam again, this time letting one hand wander
and come to rest on the flat of his stomach outside his shirt, but even that
was enough to make him ache. He had hoped, when they made the offer for him to
recover at their house, this would be the result. Somehow, even in his
imagination, he hadn’t realized how erotic it would be to feel her hands and
mouth on him while Kevin massaged his feet and watched.

When she opened his fly, his gaze went from her fingers to
Kevin. He wore such an intent look, his gaze glued to what Jill did. Then, as
if aware Adam was watching him, Kevin stared at him.

“I want to do more than watch,” Kevin murmured. “I don’t…I
haven’t…”

Jill smiled at him. “Help me get his pants off. We’ll need
to be careful of his bandage then I’ll show you what to do.”

Adam let out a deep breath, feeling the heavy beat of his
heart and the lassitude in every part of his body except his aching, throbbing
cock. When Kevin’s bigger hand wrapped around him, Adam moaned, his lips
parting as he watched them both.

They caressed him with lips and hands, stroking and suckling
while he trembled at their touches. Then Kevin’s mouth surrounded him, taking
him inside and working him with his tongue.

Adam brushed his hand over his partner’s dark head, vaguely
aware Jill did the same thing to him. As though sensing what he wanted, she
leaned down and kissed him again. Their tongues touched, curling together,
tasting and stroking. She tugged his shirt up and he did his best to help her
remove it. How hot was that? He was naked on their couch while they both made
love to him. Her mouth moved to his chest, her tongue flicking across his
nipples before her teeth lightly nipped him.

The combined sensation of her suckling and Kevin’s blowjob
was almost too much. “Slow down, Kev,” Jill told her husband. “If you’ll let me
finish him, you can fuck me at the same time.”

Adam groaned then chuckled as his cock was instantly
released. “I don’t think you’ll have to suggest that twice.” With his cock
lying hard against his bare stomach, he watched as Kevin and Jill undressed
each other, their stripping punctuated by plenty of kissing and touching.

This was so different compared to what they’d shared in the
hotel room. Was it really only a week ago? That had been about haste and
horniness. This was about loving. They were beautiful together, their bodies
fitting and meshing until they seemed nearly one, but this time, instead of
feeling as though he were only an observer, Adam saw himself as part of that
unit.

While Kevin shifted the coffee table out of the way, Jill
knelt next to Adam again, licking along his shaft until she could wrap her lips
around his cock. Kevin moved behind her, kissing from her back to her buttocks,
and Adam realized how hot a blowjob could get. After several minutes licking
and sucking, Kevin positioned himself behind Jill and slowly pushed into her
pussy. Their lovemaking was lazy and relaxed, the football game now just
background noise to the sighs and soft slapping of Kevin’s belly against Jill’s
ass.

Adam tangled one hand in Jill’s blonde hair, and Kevin
caught hold of his other, twining their fingers together and simply hanging on.
Emotion overwhelmed him. Adam supposed he could blame it on the drugs, but deep
inside he knew better. This was what he’d hoped for, longed for and feared he
would never find.

As his body tensed and his cum spilled inside Jill’s mouth,
he wondered how anything so amazing could possibly last. She turned her cheek,
resting her face at his hip while Kevin teased her with his cock until she
gasped and came. Adam stroked her hair, reveling in the wash of expressions on
her face. Soft mewls of pleasure mixed with Kevin’s harsher breathing followed
by a hoarse bark of pleasure as he came deep inside her.

She stroked his cheek, his hair, and his eyes drooped. Love
and satisfaction were potent sleep aids.

* * * * *

Kevin returned to work the following day. Being there
without Hell was strange. It was even stranger to have people stopping by to
ask him how his partner fared. Did they need anything? Almost as if they were a
couple, except the concrete help offers came from what Kevin had always
referred to as the tit parade. If they only knew. Not a couple—a trio that
included one hell of a woman more than able to take care of them both. Kevin
smiled at how okay he was with that. There were kinks to work out, but they’d
get there.

He turned his mind back to the Grady Shelby case. There were
a lot of loose ends still to be tied together. Until Hell returned, that would
fall on his shoulders. There would also be the internal investigation into the
shootings at Shelby’s farm. That wouldn’t wait for Hell’s recovery. The
officers assigned were already making arrangements to talk to Adam and Kevin
separately.

It might be part of the procedure, but it still made him
nervous, partly because he kept analyzing his own actions and wondering how
he’d missed Shelby’s movement from the barn to the house. It nagged at him.

As he meticulously connected all the details of the three
cases together, he still couldn’t dismiss the one thing that haunted him. His
failure to see Shelby move could have resulted in the deaths of everyone—him,
Hell and Addy.

He knew he should talk to Hell about it, but he couldn’t.
And honestly, when he got home at night, seeing Jill and his partner finding
their own relationship distracted him, making him forget about it. Jill
blushed, something Kevin hadn’t seen in years, and she brought out a softer
side of Hell that Kevin had only glimpsed on very rare occasions.

The night before Adam was scheduled to return to work, Kevin
woke up, hearing someone moving around in the kitchen. Since Jill was sound
asleep beside him, he had to assume it was Hell. Kevin padded along the hallway
to make sure nothing was wrong. He stopped in the doorway, seeing Adam
balancing on one crutch, his boxers hanging low on his lean hips. As he watched
the muscles play in his back while he retrieved the tea from the fridge and
poured a glass, Kevin’s cock swelled.

His mind went back to the night at the hotel, Adam pumping
his big dick in Kevin’s ass. He wanted to feel it again. The two of them.
Hardly aware of what he did, Kevin stalked forward, his own cock swinging
heavily with growing arousal inside the sleep pants he’d pulled on before
leaving his bedroom.

Adam turned as if sensing him behind him.

“How do you do that?” Kevin whispered.

“Do what?”

“How do you know I’m there?”

Adam’s gaze slid over Kevin’s front, lingering on the
erection pushing out the silky pants. He licked his lips, and Kevin’s cock
throbbed.

“I smell you. Your scent was one of the first things I
noticed, one of the first things that turned me on.” He used the crutch to step
closer. “Do you have any idea how much I want to fuck you?”