Three to Tango (4 page)

“This one was the first. It was … painful.” Her pupils flared and his heart kicked in his chest as he realized she liked that part.

He ran his hands up her sides to cup her breasts. After he pinched the swollen nipples, he pulled on the rings, watching her face to gauge just when to stop.

“Lookit that, Luca. I remember how much our pretty bird likes a little pain with her pleasure.”

Her eyes still held a glazed look, but her mouth broke on a smile so sensual and raw it shot straight to his already rock-hard dick.

“Is that why you got your piercings?” Luca moved to them.

She nodded her head slowly, licking her lips and driving Angelo crazy for her.

“Baby, you’re so sexy.” Luca licked up her spine, meeting Angelo’s eyes. “But you’re still partially dressed.”

“Luca, why don’t you help with that?”

“My pleasure.” Luca knelt before her, unzipping and pulling the jeans from her body. The panties were a small scrap of bright red with tiny white polka dots. He pressed his face to her mound and breathed her in.

Angelo watched her fingers convulse in Luca’s hair as she held him to her body.

Tom Petty’s “American Girl” came on, and she tossed her head back and laughed. “I love this song.”

Luca surged to his feet and pushed her back to the mattress, grabbing her panties and tossing them over his shoulder.

“My favorite,” she murmured up at them. “Hot and cold running cock.”

Angelo crawled over her, stopping when he got close enough to kiss her again. “You’re a dirty girl.”

She quirked up a smile. “I am. Is that a problem? Just so you know, I like it dirty and I don’t like it guilty. I stopped apologizing several years ago. I like what I like.”

“You say that like a challenge.”

Her hand on his cheek was gentle. “Not with you.” She looked to Luca. “Or you.”

“I like dirty.” Luca kissed her neck.

“Me too. So we’ve established that. Let’s fuck.”

She reached down and grabbed a cock in each hand. “All right then. Who’s fucking who? Well”—she smirked and leaned forward enough to lick over the head of Angelo’s cock and then Luca’s—“I know I’m
getting
fucked. What order, how, when?”

Angelo’s skin itched with the need to be in her. So much need that his hands shook as he rolled the condom on.

“Hands and knees, Ava. Face Luca and suck his cock while I fuck you from behind.”

Any worry that she’d not be on board with the way he spoke to her dissolved as she closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. And then turned onto her belly and obeyed.

Christ
. It nearly felled him to see her that way. Luca took in the long, pale line of her back, the ink there—the symbol of infinity with tiny purple flowers and vines all around. Her breasts hung heavy, the silver rings gleaming. Her eyelids were at half mast, lips open, glossy from her tongue as she’d swiped over them only moments before.

He scrambled into place as she crawled to him. First to kiss—the sweetness of her lips against his. And then to deliver licks and nibbles down his body until she reached his cock with a sexy, knowing, half smile.

“I’ve missed your taste, Luca.”

Angling his cock, she licked around the crown and then across the slit.

Angelo’s face relaxed, Luca realized, the moment he got all the way inside her pussy. Her moan, made with his cock in her mouth, vibrated up his spine.

So. Fucking. Good. So good it was nearly possible to ignore the sense of rightness. That part scared him a little.

She took him into that hot, slick mouth, using her tongue to massage all his sensitive spots. The sounds she made as Angelo fucked her rushed through his system, pushing him to come.

But he wanted more. Didn’t want this part to end.

Even as he tried to think about what tax deductions he needed to take next year, she cupped his balls, pressing the pads of her fingers just behind them. His cock jerked, along with his hips, at the wave of sensation that brought.

Her hair had tumbled forward, veiling her face as she moved. It was cool and soft against the skin at the top of his thighs. He sifted his fingers through it as he looked up to meet Angelo’s gaze.

He wore the same expression Luca was sure he had on as well. Wonder. No small amount of lust, satisfaction, need.

Her hand left his balls, reaching back to her pussy. He smiled up at Angelo, both of them amused by the way she took what she wanted. But her hand didn’t stay. Instead the now-slippery fingers slid down past his balls, toward his ass.

He stilled, willing himself to relax as she stroked gently against his asshole before pressing inside.

He groaned as she stretched him a bit before finding her way to his prostate. “Fuck,” he bit out as she began to stroke over it while taking him as deeply into her throat as she could. His cock was harder than he’d ever been. He ached with the need to come, with the need to drown himself in the pleasure she was giving him.

“I think he likes that, pretty bird.” Angelo ran his hands over every inch of her skin he could reach. The relish on his face brightened his eyes when they met Luca’s briefly before returning to her again. “Your cunt is so hot and wet. I never. Ever. Want to leave it.”

Luca found himself in the clenched fist of climax, back bowed, his fingers in her hair tight, urging her closer as he thrust into her mouth.

She continued to nuzzle and lick until he was totally soft. With a kiss at the head, she turned her face up to his. “Yum.”

He groaned. “You’re a fucking menace with that mouth. On both levels.”

Her smile lifted his heart.

“Now that Luca’s cock isn’t in your mouth I can move you a little. Can you kneel back? Keep my cock inside you. I’m not leaving any time soon.”

She pushed herself back and then up, essentially sitting on Angelo’s thighs as he banded an arm around her chest to hold her up. Each time he thrust, her tits bounced quite delightfully. Her eyes went sleepy and dazed as Luca’s gaze slid down to watch Angelo’s cock disappear into her pussy over and over.

He was sated enough to be satisfied simply watching as he caught his breath. The two of them, his oldest friend and the woman he always thought of as the girl who got away, fucking. Muscles bunching and relaxing, the hue of Ava’s full body flush, the inky black rope of Angelo’s hair against her very pale skin.

Her breathless gasps and Angelo’s grunts played against the wet slap of cock to cunt. Beautiful.

Just when Ava was sure she was done coming for the time being, Luca stirred from the place where he’d been watching her and Angelo, crawling toward them with a smile on his face. He caught her in his gaze, and she couldn’t have looked away, even if she’d wanted to.

Angelo’s cock continued to fill her and retreat, lighting up all sorts of nerve endings deep inside. He was so
big
. His hands on her, putting her exactly where he wanted her, however he wanted her. His voice a rumble in his chest as he gave her instructions in that calm, in-charge voice.

Drove her crazy.

And Luca with his pretty face and tanned skin, those big sexy eyes and that sinful mouth. A mouth he latched on to her knee and then to the inside of her thigh. Ava held her breath, her gaze snagged on him as he licked down the crease between thigh and body.

“Such a pretty cunt,” he murmured, spreading her open and pressing a kiss to her clit.

Angelo angled his head to watch as well, his chin resting on her shoulder.

Luca made long, slow licks through her pussy, pausing to include Angelo’s cock as he pulled out. She gasped at the sight.

“Christ,” Angelo hissed, losing his rhythm for a few strokes.

And when Luca’s mouth found her clit, his tongue playing over it ever-so-lightly, just a ghost of pressure, she lost her hold, falling into climax with nearly mindless ferocity.

Angelo didn’t wince when her nails dug into his thigh. He was too busy not screaming from the intensity of the squeeze of her cunt around his cock as she came. She squirmed, undulated and writhed, pushing him right to the edge in seconds. His resolve to make it last wisped away as he grabbed her hip with his free hand, holding her down on his cock as he came so hard he saw lights against his eyelids.

Even after he’d come, his muscles jumped, his heart raced and he didn’t want to let her go, afraid that he’d come back and she’d be gone again.

But his knee wasn’t what it once was, and the position wasn’t one he could hold forever, so after a time, when he trusted his hands not to shake, he kissed her shoulder and helped lay her down as he pulled out and left briefly to get rid of the condom.

Standing in the bathroom, the purple light of sunset painting the walls, he looked at himself in the mirror before splashing water on his face and putting himself back together so that by the time he came back into the room and saw her there, so fucking beautiful in Luca’s arms, a smile on her face, he could grin and join them.

Three

“
I
do believe I’m hungry.” She stretched, put her arms above her head as the two men bracketed her.

Luca kissed her chest, right over her heart, his gaze locked with Angelo. “You sure you don’t need a nap?”

“I was exhausted earlier. Now I’m just tired. Funny how sex can do that.” She sat up. “Three orgasms in ninety minutes does a body good.”

It was Luca who spoke, though Angelo liked to think he would have if Luca hadn’t, “Baby, your mother died. A mother you had … mixed feelings about. But she was still your mother. And you came back here for the first time in years at what you admit was a crazy time work-wise. Is it too much to think that you needed a little bit of TLC?”

She blinked several times and shrugged, clearly holding back tears. Angelo pulled her to stand. “Take a long, hot shower. Let us feed you and ply you with alcohol and then you can sleep.”

“Two pretty boys waiting on me? Feeding me and getting me drinks? Well, all right. That sounds like a very good offer.” She made an effort to keep her words light, but Angelo heard the strain in them and gave her the space she so clearly needed.

She rustled through her suitcase, grabbing a handful of clothing, and after a kiss for both of them, disappeared into the bathroom.

Luca rolled from bed. “You can use the shower in my bedroom if you like,” he called over his shoulder as he left the room.

“Are you all right?” Angelo asked as he followed Luca down the hall toward the large master suite.

“Yes.” He answered quickly but then paused as he grabbed a towel, handing it over. “Shower. Let me get the steaks on.”

He soaped up and thought about how a seemingly simple thing like fucking a beautiful woman was actually the most complicated thing he’d ever done.

Fucking was the easy part.

What he’d just done wasn’t only fucking. The moment he’d seen her, had allowed himself to touch her and … fuck …
feel
for her again, he’d allowed himself to also think about the what-ifs.

He didn’t do what-ifs. What-ifs were like pinning your hopes on winning the lotto. Angelo was a realist. What-ifs weakened a man. Hadn’t they weakened his own father? Reduced him to a series of shitty, dead-end jobs and sad stories about his time on the rodeo circuit. A life he’d never have, and because of that, his father never felt happy about anything.

Angelo had no intention of being that person.

Luca put the steaks on the now hot grill, enjoying the sound and scent for long moments. He’d washed his face and hands, though he’d been reluctant to part with her scent.

He heard her voice as he sliced up cucumbers. Singing in the shower. Happiness bloomed through him at her presence. Goddamn, he’d missed her. Funny to think he could have formed an attachment to her when they’d only been together for a handful of months. But he
knew
her.

In the time after he’d returned to Petal after graduation, they’d gotten closer. She’d opened up to him, talking about her dreams for the future. She’d been the first person he’d confided his interest in architecture to. His desire to abandon his plans to attend law school and pursue design instead.

The fall into a romance had been deliciously slow until he found himself with his hand up her shirt and his mouth fused to hers. What they’d had then had been incendiary. He couldn’t get enough of her, spending every waking moment he could with her, helping out at the café just to see her more.

He’d known she had wanted to leave. Had known she’d been scrimping and saving every extra penny she’d earned working at The Honey Bear. Every moment they had had made him hungry for more.

And then Angelo had come back before he went off to training camp. She and he were already friends from childhood, and their energy together, instead of making Luca feel excluded, made him feel welcome. It had been so sexy to watch the two of them flirt, though she hadn’t really known it. It was probably part of the lure originally for Angelo, the way she didn’t fawn over him because he was
the
Angelo Bennett.

And they’d ended up, God, the first time had been in his parents’ bonus room. They’d been there on an afternoon. It had been midsummer, so she’d had on these tiny shorts and a threadbare T-shirt. Her hair was brownish blonde then, and longer, so she’d often worn it in a braid. He’d reached out to touch it, pulling on it, and her eyes had widened as she made the sexiest groan he’d ever heard.

Everything had changed when Angelo had murmured something in her ear and she’d nodded, her eyes still wide.

Christ, he’d never been with anyone like that before. Or, hell, since. It had been wild, rutting, licking, biting. He’d fucked her while Angelo had watched, but then, he’d been there, his hands all over both of them, his cock in Ava, but then it had been in Luca’s hand.

A new something had been born that day. A new bond with Angelo and, God help him, the seeds of the love he’d already begun to feel for Ava bloomed into something else, something deeper and less sweet than it had been before.

There had been other times, but it was the last one he remembered most. At a hotel in Riverton, just the three of them. All night long they’d loved and fucked and laughed, and when he woke up, she was gone. Nothing left behind but a note on the pillow for each of them saying she had to leave or she’d die in Petal, always being seen as The Rand Girl.

He’d moved on. Had even spoken to her briefly now and again. He most definitely always considered her a close friend because of what they’d been to each other. He’d nearly married once, though thank God he’d finally admitted to himself what a monumental mistake it would have been and called it off.

And now she was upstairs and he’d touched her. Her taste lived in him again. He would never be able to go back to what he was before he’d walked out of the back of the café to find her standing there looking lovely and sad.

He heard Angelo amble down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Smells good.”

“I’ve got some mixed greens and tomatoes for salad. Oh, and cucumbers.” He knew he babbled but couldn’t seem to stop.

Angelo retrieved the tequila and some limeade from the freezer.

“She gets to me. Takes me back to a place I thought I’d forgotten.” He paused as Angelo used the blender. “I don’t think I’m putting it into the right words.”

“She makes me want things.” Angelo poured the margaritas into a pitcher and salted the rims of the glasses.

Luca knew there’d be nothing more, though he waited patiently as he sliced the bread. Angelo had been raised to believe wanting things was a waste of time.

Luca heard her moving around, coming from the guest room toward the stairs. “It’s more, Angelo,” he said softly before she entered the room.

“My stomach just growled so loud it startled me.” She bussed his cheek before grabbing a slice of cucumber. “May need those tomorrow morning.”

“I think I can manage to make you eggs and pancakes. That what they do out in Los Angeles? Eat cucumbers for breakfast?”

She laughed, surprisingly close to a giggle. “No, silly. To put on my eyes to combat the dark circles I’m likely to wake up with. Though one of the writers I work with drinks wheatgrass every day instead of coffee.” She shuddered.

“Margarita?” Angelo asked from behind them.

She turned. “Yes, please.”

He drew the glass closer, luring her to him, and she stopped laughing when he kissed her. His fingers tangled in her hair, yanking enough to get her attention and drag a groan from her lips.

“Mmm.” Ava licked her lips and then tasted the margarita. “Delicious. Margarita’s good as well.”

“I’m glad you’re here. Sorry for the circumstances, but so fucking happy to see you.”

Pleased and surprised, she smiled up at him. “Thank you. I hadn’t, well, I guess I didn’t know what to expect. I knew I’d see Maryellen and Jasper of course, but I …” She lifted her hands, not saying more.

“Drink up, baby. Let us take care of you.” Luca pulled a chair out for her at the kitchen island.

Damn it, this whole trip had been … unexpected. She sure as hell didn’t know why being taken care of should make her want to put her head down on the counter and weep.

She watched the two of them move in unison, in that rhythm they had that she used to be jealous of. But after a while she’d come to appreciate the beauty of being that connected to someone else.

Luca slid a tray of buttered bread under a broiler while Angelo put plates along the bar. He paused, kissing her neck as he passed.

That
had been definitely unexpected. She had come back to town and hoped she’d see them, wondered if they’d still have that level of attraction. She hadn’t expected to be swept into a threesome with them only hours after being back in Petal and she surely hadn’t expected this … this sort of,
gah
, well, this sort of intimacy. As if she’d never left.

It befuddled her. She liked certainty, and this was chaotic. Wild. It felt so good her rational mind questioned it.

“Medium rare okay with you?” Luca looked up from the grill, and she nodded.

Moments later she was facing a plate heaping with salad, garlic bread and the perfect steak. Oh, and a hot man on either side.

“Score.” She smiled after she said it, sipping her drink.

“Tell us about your life.” Luca began to eat.

She told them about her job writing computer code, trying to avoid the boring details. Luca’s attention was totally focused on her in that way he had of making her feel like no one else existed but her.

Angelo ate in a ruthlessly efficient way. Like a machine. It had always fascinated her, was part of the reason she’d stare at him when he wasn’t looking back when they were kids.

Now she got to look her fill at him, and he didn’t seem to mind at all.

“What about you?” she asked Luca.

“Well, we took on another partner two years ago. The economy has slowed our plans to bring on another architect, but there’s plenty of work for us, thank God.”

“He designed this place and my house in Atlanta,” Angelo put into the silence.

“It’s beautiful. The rooms are all so bright. The way you’ve positioned the house is perfect to get a view from every room I’ve been in so far. It’s comfortable but still very classical. Masculine.” She’d eyed the design, had seen it from her own perspective, of numbers and angles.

He blushed, and she couldn’t help herself, she leaned over and hugged him. “You’re amazingly talented, Luca.”

She thought back to something her assistant had said. He’d said it in that way he had, self-deprecating, cutting and, yet, insightful.
Ava, darling, you don’t realize this, but I must tell you how much it sucks that no one takes you seriously when you have a face like this
. With a shake of his head, he’d straightened the front of his shirt.
Oh, sure, everyone wants to take us home from the clubs, but no one seems to think we can add up a tip or balance a spreadsheet. It’s a spreadsheet. It does the adding for you anyway
.

She had laughed at the way he tossed his hands up.
Ava, pretty boys need some love too. We get lots of fucking, I’m not gonna lie.
He’d winked.
But we need more love
.

She’d snorted, kissed his forehead and given him the rest of the day off.

Luca Proffit was the poster boy for pretty. He and one of Petal’s other pretty boys, Matt Chase, had gone back and forth—every other dance or event Luca would be the king or the most this or that. He dated cheerleaders and girls who drove to school in shiny new cars. He’d always been like a dream to her. So very handsome and nice. Gentlemanly. His parents were not affluent, but they were respected and loved by most people in town.

He was one of those beautiful, golden blonds with brown eyes. Good natured. Laid back and affable. She’d wanted him for as long as she could remember. Having him had been sort of a dream.

Ava looked over to Angelo again. “So you, Mr. Big-Shot Entertainment Lawyer, how’s tricks?”

“Tricks are very fine indeed.” He put down his fork and looked her in the eye. “How long are you here for, Ava?”

That was abrupt.

“I don’t know. I figured I’d go home after the memorial service.”

“We only get two days of your time?” She knew she wasn’t imagining the annoyance in his tone.

“My assistant is dog-sitting. Al will eat his entire house if I stay gone too long.”

Angelo’s scowl turned into a smile. “You have a dog named Al?”

“I do. He came with the name actually. I figured it’d be mean to just start calling him by a stranger’s name.”

“What kind of dog is this house-eater? Husky? Doberman? German shepherd? “

“He’s a terrier, a Jack Russell. He thinks he’s a wolf though, so don’t tell him. Anyway, he’ll be fine with Travis, that’s my assistant, for a while. But he’s very particular, my Al. He and Travis are friends and all, but he’s my dog and he is quite assertive on this point.” She grinned.

“You should stay until Sunday. Stay and spend time with us. Bicentennial Day is Saturday. We can see the fireworks from my dock.” Luca took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers.

To be wanted that way left her feeling exposed and needy.

“I have to run home tomorrow. I have a hearing Wednesday morning. But I’ll be back here by the memorial, I promise you.”

Crap, the tears again. She blinked them back, and Angelo shook his head. “Why are you so afraid to cry in front of us? Hmm? It’s just me and Luca. You all hard now?”

The smooth veneer he’d been wearing since he arrived slipped, and that rough-and-tumble kid surfaced. His country clicked into place, thickening his accent.

“Why are you mad at me?”

“Because you’re holding back. You go away for ten years. Ten fucking years, Ava. Oh, you call me now and again and leave a voice mail. Or you send me an email. But that’s not you. That’s a piece of you.”

“Oh, and flowers every five months is you?”

“No. It’s not. I’m a hypocrite. Sue me.”

She stabbed her steak, eating it with relish. “You’re still an arrogant, pushy bastard.”