Chapter 61
Katie
Part of me felt wrung out, empty after the angst of this afternoon, but perhaps that made it easier to be filled by this. The feeling of each man clustering closer to get to me, the feel of their hands running over my body. This was what Mandie didn’t understand, what I couldn’t tell my mother. In their grip, I felt… special, beautiful, perfect in every way, because why else would they do this?
“Fuck, been waiting for this…” Garrett’s growl was followed by a kiss, then another, close but not close enough to where I needed him, and my hips moved blindly in response. “Stay still.” His hands gripped my thighs, forcing me to obey him. “Feel me and keep your eyes on Rhett.”
Garrett getting bossy wasn’t a new thing, but this was. I felt almost shy, panting out my response to Garrett’s tongue sliding along my entire seam as Rhett and Rhys watched, but it was more than just embarrassment. Connection, that’s what came to me belatedly, right as my body rippled. There was something fluid about Garrett’s caresses, turning my bones to rubber, my body shifting in response to his licks.
“Got you feeling good?” My attention flicked to Rhys, who was moving closer, his fingers trailing down my breastbone. “How about now?”
I couldn’t reply, just letting out a hiss as his hand slid down and separated my folds, a finger finding my clit. My whole body jerked in response to that first caress, a burning pleasure building in response. I reached out for Rhett, trying to grasp that cock standing proud from his body so I wasn’t the only one falling to pieces right now, but he gripped my wrist.
“That’s not what this is about.” Rhett pushed my hand away gently, keeping it pinned in his grip. “This is about you. Today hurt.” I frowned slightly, able to see Mum and Mandie all too clearly in my mind. I didn’t want them here with me right now, disrupting what was happening. “Eyes on me.” Mine flicked up obediently to meet his. There was a gentleness and a savagery in the way he looked at me that I needed so much. It made clear it wasn’t just me that rode the knife edge of pleasure and pain. “We let you down.”
“No—”
I went to protest, wanting to refute all the things that had been said. None of that mattered now, right? We’d made promises, decided on a way forward, and that meant I could?—
“Yes.” He moved closer, pressing his forehead to mine. “I fucking hate that it happened. Need to make up for it.” One hand covered my breast, Rhys’ doing the same, and that’s when my body changed. I was a lightning rod, struck over and over again by bolts of pleasure. “Reset everything, because that’s what’s gonna happen when you come.”
Garrett’s fingers slid over what he’d just licked, then found my core, dipping in, but not pushing forward. I let out a little grunt of frustration, but Rhys had me focussing back on him.
“You can do that for us, can’t you? Come and we can all start again. Like this is the first time. That we didn’t screw up.”
They were seeing things in far more dire a light than I was, but I couldn’t help but nod, because when I did, his fingers moved faster. Stroking my clit, pinching down slightly to force sensation to spike higher.
“Come for us.”
Rhett pressed his lips against mine, his stubble scraping my skin, but before I could respond, Rhys was taking over. Garrett pulled me down hard on his face, not letting me hover for a second as he pushed his fingers deeper. One of them I might’ve been able to resist, but all three? I was helpless as a tree swaying in the wind, tugged back and forth by them.
“I’m…”
I didn’t need to announce it. They knew, talking me through the process in low, husky voices. Each one of them told me how well I was doing, Rhys and Rhett in words, Garrett in action, licking me through this climax and halfway to the next. But for all their chivalry, that’s not what I needed. When I pulled away, Rhys grinned.
“Feeling better?”
“Not quite.”
I shoved him down onto the bed and then clambered up his body. His smile widened, then was extinguished entirely as I wrapped my hand around his cock and then thrust down. Right. There. He was hitting the spot perfectly with every stroke.
“Fuck yes.”
He wouldn’t let me take over for long, flipping me onto my back so that my head was hanging off the bed, not stopping his thrusts for a second. Rhett and Garrett dropped off the bed like big cats, prowling closer.
“Fuck, look at those lips.” A thumb was pushed between them and I sucked helplessly, caught up in the terrible storm of pleasure Rhys was brewing. “Makes me think about them around my cock every damn time she smiles.”
I grinned then, eyes hazy as I reached out and pulled them closer.
“Katie…”
Whatever protest they were going to make was cut off as I sucked one in, then pulled off and moved to the other. Back and forth I switched, my heart pounding harder, faster, and each time I returned to one man, I found him harder than before. It was my moan, long and guttural, as I reached my peak, that had them losing their shit. Garrett hissed, grunted, and then stroked my hair as he unloaded down my throat. Rhett was there, pushing in before Garrett had even stopped pulsing, unable to hold off anymore. I stared into his eyes, watching the moment he finally lost control.
“Bloody hell…”
Everyone collapsed down onto the bed, ensnaring me in a messy tangle of limbs, but we weren’t allowed more than a moment of peace. Sharp barks let us know that Bronson was done waiting outside. Garrett clambered to his feet, opening the door, and the dog came scuttling in. Not to get pats, he dove under the bed, and that’s when we heard the bloody dog next door losing its shit again.
“Fuck, we’ve gotta do something about that dog,” Rhett mumbled, pressing his face into my hair.
“Tomorrow.” Garrett settled back down with us. “I’m on late. I’ll call the council in the morning, find out what can be done.”
We had a plan, I thought that dimly, right before I dropped off to sleep.
“Rhys, can you take Bronson today?”
The next morning we were all moving around the kitchen, to get coffee, to grab a bite to eat before work, to get Bronson’s breakfast ready. Our bodies kept bumping into each other, but rather than get angry, shy smiles were traded. Garrett asked Rhys that question as he set Bronson’s food down.
“No can do.” Rhys gave the dog a brisk pat. “We’re in meetings all day. Drew said that having a dog around sends the wrong message to the potential partners.”
“I can’t take him to the station,” Rhett said before Garrett could even ask. “The whole dalmatian thing? Didn’t happen in Australia. There’s rules and regulations.”
“Looks like I’m ringing the council…” Garrett looked at the back fence, because the stupid bloody dog had started barking again. Bronson’s head hovered above his bowl, then he turned and ran off deeper into the house. “Not going in.”
“Video and record the noise,” I said, having had some experience with this at the vets. “They need evidence of the level and occurrence of the noise to take action. Have you talked to the neighbours at all?”
“I spoke to the woman that lives there once,” Garrett replied. “She said to talk to her husband and shut the door in my face.”
“Let them know you want to settle this between yourselves, but you’re about to talk to the council because you’re at the end of your tether. Might be worth talking to the other neighbours as well and see if they’re also getting frustrated.”
It was hard to see how they wouldn’t be. The dog’s barking was loud and persistent, not stopping for a second. It appeared it thought the whole neighbourhood belonged to it and it needed to be vigilant about protecting this expanded turf from threats.
“You could also give them my work’s number.” I fished out the company business card. “Some of the vets have a lot of experience working with highly reactive dogs. If they’re open to solutions, that might be one of them, now I…” I looked down at my phone. “Need to go if I’m going to get home in time to grab some clean clothes.”
“Seems like you need to start keeping some here.” Rhys shot me a hopeful look. “I mean, it’d make sleepovers easier. You could take longer to have breakfast…” He pressed a kiss to my temple. “With us.”
“Maybe.” I was trying to play it cool, but the grin on my face? It made a liar out of me instantly. “I’ll think about it.”
And I did, all the way to my car, then by the side of it as they kissed me goodbye, then on my drive home. Even as I scaled the steps to my apartment. I only thought about Mandie when I walked in the door, but me tiptoeing inside was pointless, because as I walked past her bedroom, I saw the door was open and it was empty. Left to my own devices, I got dressed and wondered exactly how it would work with the guys. I was running scenarios through my head as the hours ticked by at work, right up until the point I was forced to look at my phone. It wasn’t something I usually did at my desk, but a few messages had come through in a rapid flurry. I opened my notifications to find this.
Katie, can you drop by our place on the way home? At first I was smiling, thinking this was another invitation to hang out with the guys. Didn’t have much luck with the council and the guy next door is a dick. There’s been an emergency at work…
I didn’t read the rest, going perfectly still as I realised what this was about.
…look in on Bronson for me?
That last bit grabbed my attention and didn’t let go, jerking me to my feet.
“Katie?” one of the vet nurses said as I grabbed my bag. “Everything OK?”
“My dog.” She looked confused, because as far as she knew, I didn’t have one, and legally, that was correct, but emotionally? I remembered the conversation this morning, that Garrett was the only one who could look after Bronson today and it was him that sent the message.
Right after promising to change things, he’d left Bronson on his own, inside his house, with that damn dog yapping next door.
“I’ve gotta go,” I said. “Cover for me.”
I didn’t stop to see if that was OK, because somehow I knew what I would discover when I reached the guys’ house
The neighbour’s dog wasn’t the only one that was barking, though the sound was completely different. Theirs was rhythmic, persistent, aggressive, but Bronson? There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that sounds worse than the sound of a terrified dog. His screams were muffled by the front door, but that changed as soon as I stepped inside.
“Bronson…”
My voice cracked on his name and his yelps changed pitch, getting more and more hysterical. He was like this the first time I left the shelter. I’d cried then, and I cried now at the sound of it. I’d been the one to approve the guys’ application to adopt him, but it was only now I was realising what a mistake that was. I opened the bathroom door and found him balled up in the shower recess, damp and covered in the stink of his own urine.
“Buddy…”
He wouldn’t come near me. His head was tucked into the wall, trying to block everything out, but his tail told a whole other story. It beat at double time, frantically attempting to self soothe. Bronson had water, food, an old t-shirt and his favourite toys, so Garrett had tried to do the right thing, I’d give him that.
It just wasn’t enough.
“Hey…”
It felt like I was watching months of work flush down the plughole. Bronson didn’t even want to turn to face me. He was in his own personal hell right now, and I’d put him in it. I didn’t realise I was crying until I felt a tear roll down my face, and that brought on others. One by one, they hit the shower tiles as I leaned forward.
Bronson stiffened then started to scream in earnest. I couldn’t help but haul him closer, holding him tightly in my arms. He fought me at first, which made this super dangerous, but I wasn’t thinking with my head, but my heart. That couldn’t let me do anything but cradle him close. I rocked him back and forth, having no idea if that helped dogs like it did babies, and mumbled nonsense words until he seemed to snap out of it. One snuffle, then another, he drove his nose into my neck, smelling my scent and then whimpering as he fought to get closer. He was a heavy weight that stank to high heaven, but he was back here with me, not in that fighting ring all over again.
Of course, that was when the sound of the dog next door filtered in.
“I’m getting you out of here,” I said, even though I had no idea what to do once that was achieved. He couldn’t stay at my place, but there was no way he was staying here. “C’mon, boy, let’s go.”
Those words sank in and he pulled away, running at full pelt towards the front door. I found the collar that Rhett and I had chosen hanging up on the hook and put it on Bronson before clipping on the lead.
“Don’t worry, boy, I’m getting you out of here.”