Chapter Twenty-Three
Mitch
Every damn time, I managed to shove my foot firmly in my mouth with Gabriel Sanchez, and every damn time, I ended up cursing myself from here to Sunday. You’d think I’d have learned with him by now, but nope, given the chance, I’d mess up every single time.
He repeatedly gave the impression he didn’t care what anybody thought about him, but he didn’t fool me. The merest whiff of a lie or secret had his defense mechanism surfacing, making him lash out at whomever of us he perceived to be the culprit. The man was running from something, and I had no idea what, but I recognized the signs —I’d been running for years, after all.
“What’s happening on the holidays?”
His glower deepened to full-on daggers. Something was almost certainly happening soon, or had previously, for him to be so upset about the date.
“Doesn’t sound like you’re apologizing to me.”
“I will,” I replied calmly. “After you speak to me.”
“Fuck this.” He went to get up, making me leap off my seat and over to him in a second, then place my hands on both arms of the chair, caging him in. “You never said there would be conditions attached,” he sniped, and as he smiled, a chill swept over me at how dead his eyes had become. “Oh, wait. Is this another of your lies to get me inside? Of course, it fucking is.”
“Jesus. Okay.” The man made me want to howl in frustration. “I’m fucking sorry, all right? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” I purposely slowed my rapid pulse rate and tried to calm down. “I’m sorry,” I repeated more gently.
He grunted like he didn’t care and the pout on his lips made him look cute rather than angry. I crouched in front of him, careful not to touch. He steadfastly refused to look at me. “What’s happening on the holidays?” I asked again and caught the flash of pain in his eyes. “Tell me, Gabriel.” Now I did touch, placing a hand on his knee and rubbing gently. “Please.” He shifted, clearly uncomfortable but didn’t move my hand away, something I was grateful for. I couldn’t explain why, but I needed to touch him, and I believed he needed the contact too.
From the rustling sound behind me, I guessed Leo had come into the sitting area. I didn’t hear him get any closer but sensed his presence and his gaze on us. I wanted to turn and acknowledge him but needed to focus all my attention on Gabe, who still hadn’t answered my question.
He kept silent for a long, long time, and when he spoke, his words were no more than a whisper. “They’re getting married.”
Oh, he must be talking about some friends of his.
“And because you’re stuck here you won’t be able to make the wedding?” Seemed logical, I guess, though I didn’t get why that had him so upset. Surely, they’d understand if he told them the circumstances.
A dark and humorless laugh followed, and for a brief second, I guessed he might have a bigger role, was maybe a groomsman or something, and the people really needed him to be there. Instead, the first cracks appeared in his armor, as his eyes turned glassy, and he bit down hard on his lower lip to prevent from breaking down.
I reached up to ease his lip free with the tips of my fingers, and when he looked directly at me, my heart broke at all the pain and torment clouding his gaze. I wanted to drag him into my arms and hug him so hard, but I knew he’d reject my comfort as he wasn’t ready for solace, not yet.
“Karl and David,” he choked, struggling to speak. “My ex-boyfriends.”
Boyfriends. Plural.
His sigh was long and drawn out. “The three of us were planning to have a blessing. I’d chosen the date as I thought it would be romantic…” he trailed off as the first tear began to fall, sliding unnoticed down his cheek.
Oh shit . “Christmas Eve.” I finished for him as understanding dawned. “What happened?”
“They decided I was surplus to requirements.” His voice remained detached and bitingly cold. “They’d rather continue the relationship with only the two of them. Had decided to dump me months before but kept their plans a secret. They’d been lying to my face the whole time.”
No wonder he’d freaked out and gotten so angry when he suspected we were keeping things from him. He’d been betrayed by the two people he loved and cared about the most. It must have killed him when he finally found out.
Standing, I gently pulled Gabe up with me, enfolding him in my arms the way I’d wanted to from the start of his story. He remained rigid, arms by his side, still fighting me, but I didn’t let him go; instead, I hugged him harder. After a while, Gabe tentatively slipped his arms around my waist, his fingers digging into my upper back as he tightly clung to me.
In the recesses of my mind, I noted this was the second time I’d offered comfort to one of these two men. Perhaps it was because I found dealing with other people’s emotions far easier than taking a long hard look at my own. Who knows? If I ever did find the strength to open up and talk about Katie, these guys might be consoling me.
A few seconds later, another pair of hands joined Gabe’s, and Leo’s calming presence flowed around us, moving in close behind him, enclosing him protectively between us, the way we had done for him. Gabe momentarily stiffened, and I watched as his expression grew tortured.
The three of us.
Oh God, we were his worst nightmare come true. He’d been rejected by his previous partners, and I’d lay bets on the fact he’d kept well clear of anything remotely pertaining to a threesome since then, and we’d dragged him into one anyway. Pushing him into participating because Leo and I selfishly needed it to be all of us.
My admiration for him shot through the roof, imagining what scenarios must have been running through his head when he agreed to be with us. Even now, Gabe reluctantly leaned back into Leo’s embrace, as if the movement pained him to do so, while, at the same time, another part of him needed us close.
And the next piece of the Gabe puzzle fell into place. He might not wish to have these feelings for me and Leo, but he also couldn’t contain them. He wanted us both, needed us both, and however he anticipated our situation ending, right now, he had to have this, regardless of the consequences.
“Please,” he whispered into my neck. “Please, take the pain away. Just for a little while.”
My heart started beating so hard it almost punched through my ribcage, his request paralyzing me, leaving me unsure what to do next. Sex may have been instinctual the first time around with these men, but deep down, what Gabe had asked of me, of Leo, I wasn’t sure I was any way prepared for or able to take that next step, the biggest step, and have full-on sex with another man.
Two other men.
I understood the physicality of what to do; my dick goes in his ass. But how do I take enough care to not hurt him while at the same time ensuring he got the pleasure he needed?
Uncertainty made me tense, warring with my ability to give Gabe his wish. Sensing my dilemma, Leo unexpectedly took over. He carefully unwrapped Gabe from around me and drew him into his arms, giving him the gentlest kiss I’d ever seen. His full lips tasted Gabe, easing him into the encounter, lightly brushing along the seam again and again as the tension in Gabe’s body loosened, and he began to reciprocate. Gabe’s lips sought Leo’s, tentatively at first, then becoming more assured, his tongue seeking entry into Leo’s mouth.
Leo opened for him, and the groan Gabe released went right to my bones—desire, pain, but most of all, need. He’d released everything he’d been holding onto for so long, and I was in awe of how easily Leo achieved it.
It was easy to overlook Leo’s ability to assess any situation and instinctively get a feel for what to do and how to react. His experience as a lawyer had taught him to watch, to learn people’s tells and mannerisms, to rapidly assess any situation. He had to find out what the witness meant instead of what they said, and in the courtroom at any rate, to use that talent to his advantage. We weren’t in the courtroom now, but he’d done the same thing here and had been doing so from the first moment I met him and he met Gabe.
Teasing Gabe with tiny flicks of his tongue and the tenderness of his kiss, he slowly pulled out Gabe’s emotions, his fears, letting him know he’d be safe and protected with us both, and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“Someone’s missing out,” Leo’s husky voice observed, as his fingers ran up Gabe’s neck into his hair, then gripping the thick strands, he turned Gabe’s face toward me. His pupils were blown, leaving only the paler jade green ring on the outer edges of his irises. Transfixed, I stared at him, the only person I’d ever met whose eyes turned lighter when they were aroused, and, oh yes, he was definitely aroused.
Lips swollen and pink, his cheekbones slashed with color, he made my heart flutter. But the complete surrender in his desire-glazed eyes as he concentrated on me is what made my knees weak. Gabe never surrendered, not to anybody. Forever fighting others, fighting himself, he never backed down. To be the ones he let in, if only for the shortest of times, made me determined to take full advantage, and even with my inexperience, give him whatever he needed for as long as he’d let me.
Taking his lips in a savage kiss, I tore down the last of his walls. I wanted him completely stripped bare, letting us see the real him and not the character he pretended to be. His fingers dug into my waist, grabbing at my clothes, then sliding upward, hooking around my shoulders, keeping me locked in place as I continued my onslaught. Teeth, tongues, and lips plundered his mouth, and finally, he began to react. Pushing his tongue against mine, forcing me to retreat as he took over the kiss, I eagerly complied, desperate for him to take any part of me he wanted.
His hands slid into my hair, grabbing hold and balling into a fist. He yanked my head to the side and dropped his mouth to my neck. Scraping, biting, and licking the corded muscle until he reached my shoulder where his lips clamped to my heated skin, and he sucked hard, marking me.
“Leo,” I moaned, and he was there in an instant. Mouth crashing down on mine, biting his way along my jaw as he mirrored Gabe on the other side of my neck, leaving his own mark. Their almost painful sucking was so fucking erotic, so carnal, I shuddered with pleasure as they both staked their claim.
A small voice in the recesses of my mind kept yelling at me this was wrong, I shouldn’t be letting them do this to me. I didn’t belong to them. I belonged to Katie, but as someone’s hand slid down and palmed my erection through my jeans, I blocked the voices out and gave in to my desire.
“Taste so good,” Leo rasped against my ear as he licked along the shell, then bit the lobe, making my cock jerk.
Gabe had already started working on my belt. The silver buckle jangled as he loosened the metal post.
“Need to taste you again,” he husked, and fell to his knees, making quick work of the snap on my jeans. After lowering the zip, my jeans and boxers were around my ankles and his mouth wrapped around my cock so quick my head spun.
“Suck it,” I croaked as he pulled back the foreskin and licked all around the head, the flat of his tongue laving over the crown, flicking across the slit, sucking out the precum. “Fuck,” I shouted as he took me all the way down his tight throat and swallowed around me, the muscles massaging my length. He was a fucking master with absolutely no gag reflex, the sensation so good I never wanted him to stop.
“You like him sucking you?” Leo asked as he wrestled with my top and undershirt. Working them up my body and over my head as I lifted my arms.
In a reverse of me and Leo, I was now the one almost naked, with them fully clothed, and I fucking loved it. Loved the feeling of freedom being stripped bare gave me, loved offering myself up to them, and by the sounds they were making—Gabe working my fat length in his throat and Leo licking his way from my neck to my chest—they loved me naked too.
Sharp teeth bit down on my nipple. “Mmm,” I moaned, even as Leo’s wet tongue instantly assuaged the pain. The rough surface sent waves of pleasure along my chest and down to my groin, joining with the almost painful suction of Gabe’s mouth on my cock.
Assaulted from all sides, the sensations coursing through my body increased the pressure, making my skin feel tight and sensitive. They kept pushing me closer to the edge, but I wasn’t ready to go over. Gabe needed us, and I didn’t want to let him get distracted from that. He’d wanted to lose himself for a while, for us to take away his pain, and I was going to make damn sure we did.
“Need you to stop,” I moaned. “Wanna come inside you.” In my lust-filled state, I hadn’t quite realized how my words might sound, but Gabe’s quick retreat from my cock, now jutting straight out from my body harder than ever before, and his looking up at me with an unreadable expression on his face made me question my words.
“Come inside me?” he asked, his voice low, husky with desire, and hoarse from where he’d been deep throating me.
“No, I didn’t mean…” But it was too late, as the image of me fucking him raw, of filling him with my seed had already fixed itself in my mind. I couldn’t unsee it, and I didn’t want to. My wife had been my only sexual partner, and we’d ditched the condoms early on in our relationship, wanting to be as close as we could be. Surely I didn’t want that same kind of intimacy, that same deeper connection with anyone else, did I?
But I did. Desperately so.
I wanted to mark Gabe and Leo the way they’d marked me. The hickeys on my neck would fade away in time, but coming inside them, filling them with my seed, they’d have a piece of me forever.
Selfish and animalistic? Maybe, but I wanted to fuck him raw with every fiber of my being, and the powerful feelings the idea engendered overpowered all else until it was all I saw. Gabe stood in front of me, the hunger in his eyes stripping away any lingering doubts.
“I want it,” he growled at me. “I want to feel you filling me up.” He turned to face Leo. “Both of you. I want both of you to fuck me with nothing between us.”
Jesus Christ .
“Yes,” I heard myself say. “Yes.”