Three to Tango (3 page)

“An orgasm. But this is better.” She gasped when he bit her nipple, moaning when it was hard enough to bring the edge of pain. And then he squeezed her clit between slippery fingers. Anything else she was going to say was lost as the roots of another climax dug in, took hold.

“Impatient.” He chuckled against her skin as he twisted his wrist, sliding two fingers into her, his thumb flicking over her clit until she nearly screamed with the force of her climax. Instead she leaned forward, putting her head on his shoulder, her teeth finding the muscles of his shoulder.

Feeling returned slowly with the sharp press of the dresser’s edge at her back. “As hospitality goes, I think this is the most welcome I’ve ever felt as a guest.”

He righted her, slowly pulling his hand free, and then to her delight, he licked his fingers. “You taste like sin dusted with powdered sugar. Good and very bad all at the same time.”

“That’s really good.” She laughed, reaching for the button of his jeans. “You need to get naked so I can ride you like a pony.”

Surprise flitted over his features along with a mischievous smile. Whatever he’d been about to say was swallowed by the sound of the front door opening and closing and then a bellow of Luca’s name that dulled into a softer inquiry as to his whereabouts.

They both froze. She’d recognize that slow, honeyed drawl anywhere. She wouldn’t be alone of course; Angelo Bennett’s voice and his ruggedly handsome face were on television from time to time, especially during football season.

“Angelo?” Ava murmured.

“I called him a while ago,” Luca said as he went to the door, opening it to find Angelo standing there. “I secretly suspected you did indeed listen to your voice mail more often, but you just ignore it.”

Angelo cocked his head. “Smells like sex in here,” he said as he walked into the room, stealing the rest of the oxygen. His gaze settled on her like a physical thing. “There she is. Rumpled and flushed. I think you looked like this the last time I saw you, too.”

He said nothing about her blush, instead sweeping her into a hug.

“Course the last time I saw you, you neglected to say you’d be leaving before dawn to move all the damned way across the country.”

She knew it needed to be said. “Yeah. I’m sorry. It was shitty of me. I know it. But I had to go. I had to.” She
had
contacted them both when she arrived in Los Angeles. Had apologized for leaving the way she had. But she did leave them both, exhausted from a long night before filled with sex and laughter.

He took her chin, tipping it up to meet his gaze. Angelo was big. Like six-and-a-half-feet tall, broad-shouldered big.

“I know you did. More than most anyone, I understand.”

Angelo grew up on that same barren bit of land near the tracks she had. But he’d had his size to propel him into sports. Football. He’d been one of the golden people and had done his best to keep away from home.

He’d always been kind to her. Had even hauled her father off her on two different occasions. And then he’d gone off to college to play ball at UCLA while Luca had headed east to go to school.

“You can make it up to me with sex.” He winked. “Luca, well now.” With a smirk, Angelo turned to his best friend, looking him over as well.

Her body remembered those months they’d spent as lovers. Her pulse sped and her nipples, already at attention from Luca’s presence, throbbed in beat with her clit.

And then Angelo strode over, leaned down and kissed Luca, leaving her rooted to her spot. Goddamn they were so fucking beautiful there, Angelo so big and braw, Luca long and lean, mouths fused, though she got the occasional flash of tongue, bringing a gasp she hadn’t intended on making.

Angelo broke away, licking his lips. “Now, that’s much better. Though I’m surprised your lips taste like pussy already. How long have you been back in town?” Angelo sent Ava a raised brow.

“I got in this afternoon. What are you doing here? I mean, I’m happy to see you and all.”

“Damn, Luca, you’re fast. As for your impertinent question, I live here.”

She tried not to give in and be amused by him, but it was a losing battle. “No, you don’t. You live in Atlanta.”

“If you ever came to visit instead of hiding out in LA, you’d know Ramona still lives here.” Ramona was one of his sisters. “I was at the JV baseball game. My nephew plays third base. They lost. We had pizza and soda. And then I listened to my voice mails.” He paused and kissed the tip of her nose and then looked back at Luca over his shoulder. “Sorry. I know how bad I am at that.”

Luca cleared his throat. “I was just trying to convince Ava to grab a drink. It’d be good to not agitate her straight out the door and back to Los Angeles.”

Angelo’s gaze on her face was knowing. “That what the kids call it today? Grabbing a drink is the code for tug job?”

“Ha! There was no tugging. You lumbered in before we got that far,” Luca interjected, tossing himself back on the bed.

“Not
yet
. I was grabbing for his cock when you barged in.” She hid a smile as she looked back up at Angelo’s fallen-angel face.

He tucked her hair behind her left ear. “Still so pretty.” He said it just for her, turning her knees to jelly, like he always had.

Angelo’s attention turned back to Luca. “Town’ll be buzzing about Marlene Rand’s daughter boozing it up, and this right after her momma done up and got kilt by driving drunk.” Angelo turned up the Southern. “Probably not the kind of attention our Ava wants.”

“We went over that, too. My next sentence, if you ever let me get a fucking word in edgewise, was that I have tequila and that I’d make dinner here.”

Ava turned her attention back to Luca, moving toward him. Angelo caught her, pulling her against him, her back to his front.

“I’m sorry about your mom.” He slid his hands up her arms, and she tried not to swoon.

She sighed, tipping her head back to look up at him. “It’s okay. I wasn’t surprised when I got the call.”

“Why didn’t you call to tell me you were coming to Petal?” They’d spoken on and off over the years. She sent holiday cards. He sent lavish flowers at random, with little notes of invitation in them that she was never quite brave enough to accept. Still, they had something. A connection she’d never lost. He understood her in ways no one else really could.

What could she say to that? “I didn’t know if you’d care.”

His features darkened briefly. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know!” She threw her hands up, flustered. “It was ten years ago, and I was a bitch to leave the way I did.”

“You had to go to survive. I get it. You matter to me.” He said it like it was obvious, and she supposed it was.

“And to me.” Luca spoke from his place on the bed.

“Luca already got to show you how much.” Angelo kissed her neck. “You’re not wearing a bra.”

“Are those sentences even related to each other?” Luca unzipped his jeans, pulling his cock out.

Hello, gorgeous.

“Do they need to be? It’s a thing I noticed as I was staring down at her tits. Like you didn’t look.”

Luca fisted his cock, pumping it a few times, sending her train of thought right off the tracks. “No, no they don’t need to be. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t missing something. Sometimes your logic escapes me.”

Ava laughed. “I’d forgotten what the two of you were like together. Like old married people.”

“Come on down here, Ava. Let’s remember what the
three
of us were like.” Luca waggled his brows, but her laugh caught in her throat as she caught sight of the shiny bead of pre-come on the head of his cock.

“Pretty bird, undress me first.” Angelo spun her, leaving her breathless. The raw need on his face didn’t help. “Since Luca got started before I’d even arrived. Rude.” He sent an arched brow toward Luca, who snorted his response.

Ava ran her hands all over Angelo as she pulled his shirt from his body. He’d first called her pretty bird back when she was in middle school. But after they’d … after they’d been together, the tone of it, the way he’d emphasized the words, had been different, sexy.

Luca broke into her thoughts as he teased back, “Her taste is still in my mouth, as a matter of fact. Do I need to run that by you, too?”

Angelo cocked his head at the retort and each of them positively oozed testosterone.

“Both of you have big, giant cocks and fuck like rock stars,” she droned, her voice dry. “Jeez, you two need a cookie or a gold star or something?”

Angelo barked a laugh, kissing her. “If cookie is pussy and I can eat yours, I’m on board with that plan.”

Well, what on earth was there to argue about with that statement? She kissed up his side, pausing at the bar in his left nipple. “I like this.” She tugged on it with her teeth, pulling just shy of pain. He arched into her with a snarled hiss of pleasure.

“Guess that works. Let’s see what else does.”

Luca groaned. “You’re taking too long. How about we get her naked, too?”

Angelo mock-pouted at Luca. “What, you don’t want to see me naked?”

Luca got to his knees and rolled from the bed, stalking toward Angelo. “Oh yes. Yes, I do. But I can multitask.” Luca kissed her shoulder as he moved past.

She flushed. Before, when they’d all been together, the two of them had jerked each other off, but there was so much more between them now. The day was looking up!

“I’m going to be right back.” Luca jogged from the room, and she turned back to Angelo.

Angelo arched into her touch, delighting in the feel of her mouth against his side, across his ribs.

“I’ve missed you,” he couldn’t stop himself from murmuring to her. No more than he could stop the way his heart swelled when she simply put her arms around him and held on.

She got to him. Had always gotten to him with those big, startled eyes of hers, usually turned to the floor. Nervous as she tried to remain unnoticed at school or in town. Especially at home.

She’d soaked up his kindnesses like thirsty ground, and he’d ruthlessly shoved all his desire for her away. Locked it down. Went to school, fucked women who weren’t broken and sweet. Women who were of age, for God’s sake.

None of them were her. In the years since he could still say the same.

He’d come back to Petal after he’d been drafted. For the time before training camp had started, and she’d been there. Legal. Beautiful.
And his best friend’s girlfriend
.

He’d ached for her. Had watched her with Luca, jerking off to the memories of the way they’d touched each other. His presence was welcomed in their relationship, and he knew he hadn’t been imagining the rising sexual tension between the three of them.

It all started when Luca had pulled on her hair and she’d reacted. He shivered, thinking back to the ragged need in that sound, the awakening of something else inside him, and then he’d whispered in her ear and everything had changed.

“Does it make you wet? That little bit of pain?” he’d whispered like a stranger to himself.

She’d paused, and nodded slowly, her eyes wide with revelation, surprise, a little bit of fear and a lot of desire.

And then he’d been with both of them. Luca was the one who initiated it, leaning toward her, pulling her ponytail to bring her to his mouth. When her back was arched, Luca pressed her body into Angelo.

That kiss had been a breath away from his mouth, and Luca had said, “Baby, Angelo is here. I think we should invite him to stay.”

And he had. That first time had been exhilarating. Teeth and nails, biting, sucking. He’d been drunk on her, bingeing on how fucking good she felt against him at last. And then Luca … he hadn’t expected that upswell of desire, though he’d always had an attraction toward men and women.

He’d never felt so connected to anyone the way he had with them. He’d tried other threesomes. Had tried other men, but it had never been the same.

“I missed you, too. But I do get to see you on ESPN during football season.” She grinned up at him and he laughed, kissing her soundly.

“But you’re not on my television. I can’t touch you.” He pulled her shirt over her head, and Luca came back with condoms, lube and music sounding through the speakers embedded in the ceiling.

“I put some steaks in a marinade. When we’re finished … with the first round at least, we can have some dinner.”

Luca, beautiful, golden boy, grinned at both of them, and Angelo couldn’t deny his lips turning up in response.

Ava walked around his body, pressing herself to his back. “I love this ink.” She petted over the Samoan tattoos on his shoulders and down his spine. His mother had loved the homage he’d paid to her heritage with those tattoos. Seeing her so happy in those last months of her life had been worth the pain of getting them done in the traditional way, which took twenty days, though it’s not so bad when you get to lie on your belly with the ocean just feet away.

Luca took his place on the bed, watching them both. Long limbed and toned, he’d taken his pants off and reclined, totally naked, stroking his cock as his gaze ate the two of them up.

Ava slid her palms down Angelo’s belly, and he sighed, content. “Such a hard belly. God, it makes me wet.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he heard it as it played back against the memory of that first time.

“Something else hard for you to touch, too.”

Her cheek had been resting against his back, and he felt the swell of her smile.

“Like this?” She unzipped his jeans slowly, drawing her nails over his cock through the material of his boxer briefs.

“The very one.”

Luca’s gaze slid down his chest and to the place where Ava had pulled Angelo’s cock free one-handed while shoving his pants and boxer briefs down with the other.

She circled again, stopping when she faced him. Her eyes weren’t startled anymore. He realized that although she’d been open with him and Luca, this Ava was self-assured in a totally different way.

“What made you decide to get ink and piercings?” he murmured, walking her back to the bed.

She shrugged. Sliding graceful fingers up her side over the petals and ivy, she paused at the word written there—Fly.