Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Colum: Have you ever done drugs?
Franco: Nice try, copper. I’ll never admit anything. Now give my friend back his phone.
Colum: I ate a pot brownie.
Franco: …
Franco: Oh. That’s cute. You think a pot brownie counts as doing drugs.
X avier rolled over, hand sliding across the mattress until he encountered warm flesh. Eyes still closed, he smiled. Colum. He knew without looking who was in bed beside him. How he’d gotten into bed was a little fuzzy, but that was one of the best nights of sleep he’d had in a long time.
Maybe because of the man beside him. Xavier ran his hand over the warm, smooth skin of Colum’s bare back. Was he wearing bottoms? Xavier had every intention of finding out. Once he reached Colum’s shoulder, he reversed course, hand molding over contours of muscles.
“She drugged us.”
The muffled words had Xavier going still as he frowned. Finally, he opened his eyes.
Colum was lying on his stomach, face turned toward Xavier, with his arms folded and tucked under the fluffy pillow. The one eye Xavier could see was only half open, most of his face sunk into the pillow.
“ Quoi ?” Xavier asked, thinking he’d misheard Colum.
Colum pushed up onto his elbows, the covers sliding down his back to pool at his waist revealing that he was, in fact, bare from the waist up. The movement caused Xavier’s hand to slide off him, and he mourned the loss of his chance for further exploration.
“Annie drugged us.” Colum’s expression was serious but not concerned. He seemed more bemused than angry.
Xavier sat up fast, thinking back to last night. He remembered feeling sleepy on the couch, and now he was mellow and well rested. Merde . How had she…
“The brownies?”
“Sure enough.”
Xavier dropped back onto the pillow. “ Quelle salope intelligente ,” he muttered with mixed admiration and anger. He considered himself cynical but apparently not cynical enough to distrust desserts.
Colum shifted, leaning over Xavier to peer down into his face. “Did you just call her a bitch?”
“A clever bitch.”
Colum’s eyes narrowed.
Xavier cocked a brow. “Going to hit me again for insulting her?”
“No.” Colum’s gaze slid down to his mouth.
“Going to kiss me?” Xavier asked quietly.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“I think you should.”
Colum leaned down but stopped himself just short of making contact. When he sighed, Xavier felt Colum’s exhale against his own lips.
“I shouldn’t be doing this.” Colum abruptly rolled away.
He took the covers with him, and the shock of cold air made Xavier grimace. Colum hopped out of bed, revealing that he was wearing his boxers. Xavier sat up, watching the flex of Colum’s ass in the tight boxer briefs as he pulled on his pants.
Xavier slid out of bed. Unlike Colum, he was naked. He pulled on pants, and when he turned, Colum was definitely staring.
Xavier smirked, his anger at Annie amplified by sexual frustration. “Brave enough to look but not to touch.” He clicked his tongue, shaking his head mockingly.
A muscle in Colum’s jaw flexed and he snatched up his shirt, stalking out of the bedroom.
Xavier winced, half wishing he could take back his mocking. But the other half of him was sexually and emotionally frustrated and had no problem with goading both Colum and Annie until they gave in to the desire that lashed them together.
Xavier followed Colum out, catching up to him as the other man stopped in the living room of the suite, staring at Annie.
She sat at the small table, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, but a few pieces had escaped. Even from here, he could see the dark circles under her eyes, and she was hunched forward as she made notes on a tablet.
The Yorick skull sat on the table in front of her.
“What’s all this, then?” Colum asked, head cocked as he studied her.
“I did what I could with the tools I have.” She gestured to a small towel on the table beside her. A few small electronic devices, none of which Xavier could identify, were laid out there.
“What are those?” Colum asked, voice tinged with interest. He started to rush forward, but Xavier put a hand on his shoulder stopping him.
“Scanners, a digital no-touch probe. I’ve confirmed it’s made of plaster, and the interior is hollow, which we basically knew from the weight. I also…”
Annie went on, but Xavier stopped listening, instead studying her. She looked exhausted, and given everything she was saying, he guessed she’d stayed up all night examining and studying the skull.
Xavier leaned in to whisper in Colum’s ear. “I don’t think she slept.”
Colum stiffened, his gaze sweeping down her in a proprietorial assessment. That possessive look perfectly encapsulated how Xavier was starting to feel about Annie…and Colum.
Colum looked at Xavier and a shared moment of understanding passed between them.
As one, they moved, Xavier toward Annie, Colum toward the phone.
Annie looked up as he loomed over her. “Yes?”
Instead of replying, he gently took her hand, pulling her from her chair. Annie blinked in surprise, then inhaled sharply when he slid an arm around her, guiding her over to the couch. Once Annie was seated, Xavier went to the small coffee station, sneering at the pods. That turned into a smile as he listened to Colum charm the room service people to rush their breakfast order.
For a man who seemed alternately shy and brusque, he could turn on the charm when it suited him.
A second later, they rendezvoused at the couch, Xavier passing Annie a cup of coffee before dropping to sit on the coffee table facing her. Colum sat beside her, pulling the throw off the back of the chair and settling it around her shoulders.
Annie blinked in surprise, attention bouncing back and forth between them.
“Did you sleep any?” Colum asked.
Annie shook her head. “I wanted to have some information for us by the time you two woke up.”
“Drink your coffee,” Xavier said.
Annie’s gaze snapped to him as she raised the cup to her lips. She stopped, rim of the cup pressed to her full lower lip.
Xavier leaned in. “Worried it’s drugged?”
The old Annie, the one he thought he knew, would have winced or smiled. This Annie—or was it Anastasia?—maintained eye contact as she drained the entire cup.
“Janey Mac,” Colum muttered.
“No.” Annie passed him the empty cup, and Colum peered down into it.
“Did you think we wouldn’t know?” Xavier asked.
“I thought you two were in shock, and a pot brownie was safer than crushing up a Xanax and putting it in your drinks.”
“You drugged us secretly.” Colum frowned at her. “You can’t be doing that.”
At this, Annie laughed, that same sunny smile back on her face. “Oh, Irish, I’ve done far worse than slipping someone a pot brownie.”
The combination of the sweet smile and the grim tone was disconcerting. Xavier sat back, studying her again.
“Are you angry?” she asked bluntly, looking back and forth between them.
“Yes,” Xavier said.
At the same time Colum said, “Oh, but sure look, it’s grand.”
Xavier threw his hands in the air as Annie started to laugh.
“It is not ‘grand’ that she drugged us.”
“It’s a great story, like.”
A knock at the door saved Colum from Xavier’s urge to shake him. He stalked over, signing for the room service and dragging the cart inside. He made quick work of setting up the breakfast dishes, then pulled over the chair Annie had been sitting in.
Colum urged her up off the couch, holding her chair for her.
Annie stared, apparently dumbstruck by the breakfast spread. “I drugged you, and you’re ordering me breakfast and taking care of me?” She tugged the blanket tighter around her shoulders with one hand, the other reaching for a muffin.
“Anger doesn’t change what we feel toward one another.”
Annie and Colum both froze at his words.
“You want to pretend there is nothing? Or maybe pretend it is just surface sexual attraction?” Xavier smirked at them, enjoying their wide-eyed stares. He’d never been one for pretending something wasn’t there, especially when it came to romance and sex. “If it were just sex, we wouldn’t enjoy one another’s company, but we do.”
Colum ran a hand through his hair, making Xavier’s libido sit up and beg. Fuck, the man was sexy without knowing it.
“I need a cup,” Colum said abruptly, reaching for a silver pot of tea on the tray. “Annie, what were you saying we’d do next?”
Xavier caught Colum’s eye, mouthing “coward.”
His jaw tightened and his gaze slipped down Xavier’s naked torso, before jumping away.
“We really need to X-ray it,” Annie was saying. “But a portable X-ray machine isn’t going to be precise enough to see paper. We need to take it somewhere, but that’s risky. It’s possible the police will be looking for me and the skull. With Vincent’s pull, I won’t get charged, especially with the alibi, but they might question me for their report.”
“We could…”
Xavier stopped listening as he wandered over to the skull. A thrill of anticipation went through him. The manuscript was right here, just waiting to be set free. He inched closer, his thighs pressed to the edge of the table.
“Xavier…” Colum’s voice was tinged with alarm.
Annie whipped around in her chair, eyes going wide as Xavier touched the skull with one finger.
“Xavier, don’t,” Annie ordered, rising from her chair.
Xavier cocked his head to the side and smirked. He would never admit it, but he sometimes watched videos of cats pushing— booping —things off counters. The videos always made him laugh. A friend told him it was because he was essentially a black cat in human form.
Xavier pushed the skull off the table. “Boop.”
Annie and Colum both lunged, but there was no chance of saving it. The plaster skull hit the hard floor, shattering.
Annie and Colum were both yelling, but Xavier crouched, brushing aside chunks of plaster, picking up the wooden tube that had been hidden inside. The ends of the tube were capped with cloth tied in place with disintegrating blue ribbon.
When he pulled, the ribbon fell apart, raining small bits of blue over the plaster pieces.
Annie and Colum joined him, both silent as Xavier carefully worked the papers out of the tube, gingerly unrolling them just enough to read the first page.
“‘A clever fool is the most dangerous kind, and by reading these pages you irrevocably declared yourself to be one such as that.’” Xavier read aloud, satisfaction and awe sliding through him.
“We did it.” Colum sounded odd—both pleased and disappointed.
Xavier sat at the table, carefully separating the pages. At that, Colum made a distressed noise and ran for his suitcase, returning moments later with preservation tools. One by one, Xavier passed the pages to Annie and Colum, who’d silently set up a mini lab, photographing each page and backing the frailest of them with acid-free paper to stabilize them.
They were working to preserve the manuscript, but Xavier was reading it. Not fully, not with the detail Wilde’s writings deserved, but reading nonetheless.
Colum and Annie began speaking quietly about what to do next, clearly planning how to wrap up their mission. Their voices were tinged with emotion, though they seemed to be trying to hide it.
Xavier reached the last page and exhaled, his suspicions confirmed.
This had been too easy. Not objectively, but for a treasure hunt designed by Oscar Wilde, this had been far too simple.
“This isn’t the end.”
Annie and Colum both looked up.
Xavier gestured to the last two pages, which he had spread out on the table. “This isn’t the end of the manuscript. He says he’s not yet done.”
Colum smiled in clear relief. Interesting.
Annie, however, narrowed her gaze. “Is there a clue where to go next?”
Xavier shrugged. “I need to read it more slowly.”
“Or,” she said, smiling sharply, “the clue was somewhere on the skull that you just shattered into a dozen pieces.”
Oh.
Xavier looked down. Merde.
“Damn it, Xavier, you couldn’t have waited?”
“No, I could not,” he shot back. “Someone tried to murder us, and you want to wait to find some X-ray machine? What then? We had to get it out.”
“We could have done it gently. Made a hole. We could have done this methodically and logically.”
“How long would that take? How long do you want to wait?”
“It’s not waiting.” Annie shoved to her feet, leaning over the table to get in his face. “It’s working the problem.”
Xavier rose slowly, leaning in until they were nearly nose to nose, not caring that she was deadly. “I will find the next clue. It’s in the words.”
“You better hope it is.”
“Or what, mon cheri ?” he mocked.
A hand covered Xavier’s face, distracting him. Colum, hands covering both their faces, pushed them apart. The odd, silent action broke the rising tension, nearly startling a laugh out of Xavier.
“No more flirting,” Colum said.
Annie sighed. “You’re really bad at telling what’s flirting and what’s fighting.”
“Ah feck, this time it was fighting?”
“Yes,” Xavier said, then licked Colum’s palm where it still covered his face. Colum jumped, jerking his hand away, and Xavier smirked.
“We need to know where to go next,” Colum said. “I’ll re-familiarize myself with Wilde’s travels.”
“I’ll check in with the Trinity Masters in case there’s new information on that end,” Annie said, stepping back.
Xavier sat back down. “I’ll read and find the next clue.”
They separated, the lingering tension dissipating, and Xavier settled in. Hours passed as he lost himself in the wit and angst of Wilde’s writing.
When he reached the end, his stomach sank. Going back to the beginning, he read it again.
And again.
At several points, he stopped to eat, only to go back to the manuscript.
It was dark when Colum sat down across from him. “Xavier, what’ve you found? Where are we going next?”
Grimly, Xavier looked up. “I don’t know.”
Annie rubbed her eyes wearily, glancing away from the computer. She’d been staring at the screen too long. Xavier had re-read the next part of the manuscript God only knew how many times, and now Colum was going through it, hoping perhaps he could uncover some clue about where the next part might be. The most they’d managed to do was confirm that they were in possession of the first and second parts, since the new section picked up where the one from the painting left off.
But that was it.
Most annoying was the fact that they didn’t know how many sections they were looking for. There could be three or fifty-three. Who the hell knew? It made things tricky in terms of figuring out what their next step should be.
While Colum and Xavier studied the second part of the manuscript, she worked her way through the research Colum had compiled on Oscar Wilde, in case she found something he hadn’t before, and she was doing a deeper dive on her own, looking at all the auction sales of Oscar’s other works.
“We need a break,” Xavier declared, his voice grim.
Annie nodded. “Yes, please.” Breakfast and lunch had both been ordered from room service, and they’d continued to work as they ate. Dinner probably should have been ordered a couple of hours ago, but Annie hadn’t brought it up because she couldn’t stomach any more hotel food. She was hoping to convince them to actually leave the room. She wouldn’t mind taking a long walk to stretch her stiff muscles. Sitting on the hard couch while working on her laptop had done a number on her back.
Rising, she stretched, her hands on her hips as she leaned her shoulders back, trying to work out the kinks. She grinned when she realized Xavier was watching her, his gaze drifting to the breasts she’d been thrusting forward.
“Perv,” she teased.
Xavier laughed. “No, I’m a man who appreciates art.”
“You could at least pretend to be a gentleman.”
Xavier snorted. “You don’t need, or want, a gentle man.” He split the words up, and his look was knowing. This thing between them thickened the air, but it wasn’t complete. Not when it was just them.
They both looked over at where Colum sat hunched at the small circular table near the window, reading the manuscript for what had to be the third time.
“Colum,” Xavier said, cupping the Irishman’s cheek, forcing him to look away from the pages. “Look at me. Take a break.”
Colum muttered something that sounded like, “I heard you the first time,” before grunting his assent and standing, slowly drifting over to the window. “It’s dark outside,” he said with a tone of surprise, as if he truly didn’t realize how long they’d been working.
Annie followed him, standing slightly behind him as she peered out at the night sky. She was a New Yorker born and bred, but even she could appreciate how beautiful the Brooklyn Bridge was, the lights from it reflecting on the East River. In the background, the cityscape was awash in colorful lights set against a black sky.
Colum ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. “There’s no sign of where we should go next.”
Annie reached around his waist, tucking her chest to his back to hug him from behind. Tilting her head, she directed his gaze to what she’d just been looking at. “It’s a beautiful night, Irish. Focus on that for a little while and put the rest of this out of your mind. We figured out the skull clue and found the next section, didn’t we? We’re smart people. We’ll do it again. But driving ourselves to the brink of exhaustion isn’t going to help.”
“Someone else is looking for it too,” Colum countered. “And not just asking about it on the dark web.”
“Someone else is watching,” she corrected. “Us. They aren’t going to beat us to the next piece because we currently hold all the cards. They’re waiting for us to lead them to it, which means we’re going to have to get better at watching our backs, covering our tracks.”
“Put it away for now,” Xavier urged. “Both of you.”
Colum’s shoulders slumped as he blew out a long, slow breath, his hands covering hers, clasped them against his chest, holding them so she couldn’t let go. “It is pretty here.”
Xavier stepped next to them, however, he wasn’t focused on the view but instead on the two of them. “I’m hungry,” he said suggestively, his smoldering gaze making it obvious he wasn’t thinking about food. “Starving, in fact.”
Screw the walk, she decided.
There were much better ways to stretch stiff muscles.
“Mmm…” she hummed. “You know, sex is a great way to kill time, relax, work up an appetite, and settle the mind. When you think about it, it would be in the best interest of the investigation if we fucked.”
Colum released Annie’s hands, turning to face the two of them. She couldn’t help but notice he also took a step away, his back pressed against the window. “Flirting?” he asked, almost hopefully.
“Nope,” she replied.
“I never finished punishing my bad girl,” Xavier purred.
Colum looked alarmed, but he wasn’t looking at Xavier. He stared at Annie. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”
Annie laughed loudly, equally amused and touched by Colum’s concern and how it was now for Xavier and not her. “Not this time. I’ll reserve that for a time when he really pisses me off. And given his cockiness, I think we all know it won’t be a long wait.”
Xavier reached for her, tugging her against his chest, letting her feel just how cocky he was at the moment. She ran her fingers over his pecs and stomach, not stopping until she was cupping him.
“Is all that for me?” Annie looked up at Xavier through lowered lashes. She’d enjoyed playing this little game of cat and mouse the past few days, but she was equally ready for the cat to catch the damn mouse.
Xavier leaned closer. “As much as I enjoyed bending you over that couch, I think the three of us would be more comfortable if we continued this in the bedroom.”
“Er…three of us?”
She and Xavier turned their attention to Colum. There was no denying the Irishman was interested, but Annie also got a sense he was holding back. Once again, she found herself questioning his sexual experience.
Despite spending days together, there was still too much she didn’t know about these men, things she craved to learn about them. What were their childhoods like? What made them follow their chosen career paths? Had they ever been in love? Had their hearts broken? What brought them true joy or helped them find inner peace? She wanted to know…everything.
Xavier must have noticed Colum’s unease as well. “Why don’t you watch us? Let us show you how good rough sex can be.”
Colum was nodding before Xavier finished making the offer. “Aye. I want to see.”
Xavier reached for Annie’s hand, leading her to the bedroom as Colum followed in their wake. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Colum had stopped just inside the room, leaning against the wall next to the door.
“So far away,” she complained.
“Less temptation,” Colum murmured.
“All the more reason you should come closer,” she urged.
Colum crossed his arms, his only response the single shake of his head.
Annie was curious about what was holding him back, but that question fell away when Xavier brushed her hair over one shoulder, baring the side of her neck. Her eyes drifted shut when he placed a soft kiss there. She’d expected a continuation of yesterday’s aggressiveness, so the gentleness of his touch took her by surprise. In a good way.
His fingers slid along her sides, lifting the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it over her head in one fell swoop.
Alrighty, then. Looked like they were getting right down to business.
“Are you watching, Colum?” Xavier asked, his lips tickling the side of her neck as he spoke.
“Aye,” Colum replied, his voice strained.
Annie looked at Colum, saw the obvious tenting in the front of his slacks. She didn’t understand the reason he was resistant to join in, but it clearly wasn’t based on disinterest.
Xavier unhooked her bra, dropping the lace to the floor without ceremony, his arms circling around her from behind to cup her breasts.
Annie shared the same front-row view as Colum, her gaze locked on the Irishman’s reactions to Xavier’s actions.
“You’re beautiful, Annie,” Colum murmured.
She smiled, touched, then gave him a quick, playful wink, wishing she knew what to say to convince him to join them.
Xavier remained quiet as he continued to strip her clothing away, not stopping until she was completely naked. She’d never been with two lovers at the same time, and she’d never stood nude, between such sexy, fully dressed men. She should be feeling vulnerable, exposed even, but instead, her arousal was off the charts. Her skin was flushed, heat suffusing her, a tiny bead of perspiration gliding down the nape of her neck, despite the air-conditioning.
She jerked slightly when Xavier’s hand wrapped around the front of her throat. It wasn’t a tight hold, but it was one hell of a power play. She swallowed, aware he could feel that reaction, and when he chuckled darkly, she knew he liked it.
His mouth returned to her neck. She expected another lick or kiss, so she was unprepared when he sank his teeth into her shoulder. She cried out—in surprise, pain, desire. This was moving too slow and too fast all at the same time.
Because she was still facing Colum, she saw the moment he tensed, his fists clenching by his sides. Her gentle protector, still ready to step in despite knowing she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She blinked rapidly, beating back tears, touched by Colum’s response. She’d been on her own for so long, she’d forgotten what it was like to have someone care.
When Colum started to take a step closer, she halted him with just three words. “Do it again,” she demanded.
Xavier shifted, his teeth sinking into the opposite shoulder, giving her matching marks, something she could look at later as a reminder of this moment.
His hands returned to her breasts, squeezing them tightly before grasping each nipple between his thumbs and forefingers, pinching and tugging until she saw stars.
“God. Yes,” she hissed, reaching behind her until she was able to sink her fingers into Xavier’s thick, black hair. Closing her fist around it, she pulled until he was the one hissing. Her other hand traveled lower, cupping Xavier’s thick erection through the lightweight fabric of his slacks.
One second, she was standing upright, the next, she was face down on the bed. Xavier had moved so quickly she hadn’t had time to fight back. Not that she would have. Especially when he peppered her ass with a rapid-fire series of spanks, covering her ass and upper thighs.
Movement from the side of her eye told her Colum had shifted. She lifted her gaze, pleased to see he was standing right next to the bed.
Xavier ran his hand over the hot, sore skin of her ass. “I didn’t hear you beg,” he said, reminding her that was the only way he’d allow her to touch his cock.
“Xavier,” she said, his name more breath than sound, more than willing to get down on her knees if that was what it took. It had been so damn long since she’d had an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced.
“Why did I spank you, Annie?” Xavier asked.
He was going to make her say the words. And she was going to because… Damn. “Because I’m a bad girl.”
Xavier’s hand clenched on one ass cheek hard enough that she went up on her toes, the pain and pleasure mingling until she felt light-headed.
“You’re my bad girl,” he corrected.
Xavier’s chuckle was deep and low when Colum cleared his throat.
“ Our bad girl,” Xavier amended with obvious delight.
Annie liked the idea of that so fucking much.
“Do you hear her begging, Colum? Because I don’t.”
Annie was resting with one cheek on the mattress, facing Colum. He might not be touching her, but he felt very much a part of what was going on.
Colum held her gaze as he shook his head. “No. Sure enough, she’s not.”
“Please,” she said, uncertain if she was talking to Xavier or Colum. Probably both. “Please fuck me. It’s been so long.”
Xavier, who’d been stroking her sore bottom, froze. “How long?”
“Just over a year,” she confessed.
Xavier’s hand started caressing her again. “Open your legs, Anastasia.”
She shivered at the sound of her given name in his sexy French accent, then did as he asked.
“How do you want to be fucked?” he asked.
“Hard,” she said, the word falling out, no thinking necessary.
“Ahh.” Xavier ran his fingers along her slit. “She’s dripping wet,” he said to Colum, who’d shifted farther down the bed, standing next to Xavier, gaining his own bird’s-eye view of her. Neither man had shed a single piece of clothing yet, that fact only turning her on more.
“Please,” she whispered, when Xavier’s fingers stopped just short of touching her clit. Jesus. One stroke there and she’d be a goner. How she arrived at the precipice this quickly was beyond her, but there was no denying she was right there, so close.
“Do you want my mouth? My fingers? My cock?” Xavier asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
Colum choked on a laugh.
She might have joined him, but Xavier chose that moment to sink to his knees, his tongue making the same journey his fingers just did.
“So sweet,” he murmured. “Are you sure you don’t want a taste, Colum?”
Annie glanced over her shoulder, but Colum made no attempt to join them.
Xavier lifted one shoulder. “More for me,” he said, when he caught her eye.
She huffed out a laugh that morphed to a moan when his tongue found her clit, circling it with deadly precision.
“Yes.” Annie’s fingers clenched in the duvet beneath her as Xavier added his fingers to the game, thrusting three deep inside her without warning. She’d asked for hard and he’d taken her at her word, driving in and out until she lost the ability to breathe.
“God!” Her entire body jerked with the first pulse of her orgasm, her pussy clenching down so hard it almost hurt. “Fuck. Yes!”
Xavier finger-fucked her through that orgasm and straight into a second as Annie flailed about like a rag doll in a tornado. When the last vestiges of the orgasm faded, she lay spent, face down.
She stirred slightly at the sound of a zipper being lowered. She heard the telltale sign of a condom wrapper, and forced her eyelids open, needing to see as well as feel.
“Turn over, mon cheri . I want to see your pretty face while I fuck you into oblivion again.”
Annie shifted to her back with absolutely zero grace. Her bones had turned to jelly.
Colum stepped closer to Xavier, the two men nearly shoulder to shoulder, both looking down at her as if she were some precious, rare gem. In that moment, she felt herself begin to fall, and all the reasoning in the world wasn’t going to save her. She wanted them, but she couldn’t have them. It was as simple and as difficult as that. And while she tried to make that fact sink in, it was impossible. Hearts didn’t function on logic.
She didn’t have long enough to dwell on that as Xavier shoved his pants and briefs off. His shirt joined the pile on the floor. Neither she nor Colum were discreet as they looked their fill.
Colum watched intently as Xavier rolled the condom on, his fingers twitching as if he was trying to stop himself from reaching over to help.
When Xavier stepped between her outstretched legs, Colum slipped back to the side of the bed, clearly seeking the best vantage point. She smiled when she felt the mattress give way when he sat down, his crooked leg no more than an inch or two from her.
Xavier guided the head of his dick to her, giving her that cocky smirk she was becoming too fond of before slamming inside with one relentless, deep thrust. Annie gasped, her back arching in delight, as he withdrew and returned with the same force. On one inward thrust, he tilted his hips, his cock finding her G-spot.
“Oh my God,” she yelled, her hands gripping Xavier’s upper arms as she held on for dear life.
Xavier gave no quarter, no reprieve, and Annie reached the pinnacle way too fast for someone who’d just had two delicious orgasms. It no longer felt as if she had control of her body. In this, she was Xavier’s instrument, and he was playing his magnum opus.
The third climax lasted longer, triggering several aftershocks that left her trembling, gasping for air. She’d never experienced a pleasure so intense she almost begged for a break. Annie was afraid she was risking a heart attack at this point, especially when Xavier reached between them and applied the perfect amount of pressure to her clit. He cast her right into the deep end, an orgasm she hadn’t seen coming, slamming into her.
Mercifully, Xavier jumped in with her, the two of them drowning together, bliss rushing in over her head until all she saw was black.
When Annie opened her eyes, she frowned, confused.
She was no longer lying at the bottom of the bed but was in the middle of a sexy man sandwich, under the covers, Xavier and Colum flanking her. While Xavier was still naked, Colum hadn’t removed anything more than his shoes before climbing in next to her.
“Welcome back,” Xavier said smugly.
At any other time, she’d call him on his tone, but damn if he hadn’t earned the right to be smug.
“You had us a wee bit worried,” Colum confided.
“Did I pass out?”
Xavier grinned, placing a kiss on the bite mark on her shoulder that was still tender. “You’re welcome.”
She rolled her eyes, laughing. “Arrogant ass,” she said, though there was no heat behind the words.
“I didn’t know it was possible for a woman to pass out from too many orgasms.” Colum’s words opened the door, and Annie walked through it.
“Colum, you have had sex before, right?”
His brows furrowed. “Oh, yeah, sure enough. It’s just my experiences were…er…a bit more straightforward.”
“What’s that mean?” Xavier asked.
“Well, there wasn’t a lot of foreplay. More like, we just got down to business.” Colum’s face was suddenly red, his embarrassment endearing.
“Down to business,” Xavier repeated, somewhat disgusted. “Who would sleep with you and not want to spend hours exploring every delicious inch?”
Colum’s blush deepened, but Annie didn’t attribute this to self-consciousness. The underlying sexual tension between her guys was thick enough to cut with a knife. When the two of them finally came together, it would be explosive. She sent up a silent prayer that she would be there to witness it.
“I’ve never really dated,” Colum confessed. “Relationships like that, er, they don’t come easy to me.”
“No girlfriends?” Annie asked.
Colum shook his head.
“Boyfriends?” Xavier added.
“No. The two times I had sex—” Colum began.
Annie’s eyes widened as Xavier sputtered in shock. “You’ve only had sex twice?” he asked, aghast. “With the same person?”
Colum grimaced, then shrugged. “No. Two different women, two different nights. They were both American tourists who I met down at the pub. They liked my accent.”
Annie tried not to laugh, but when she glanced at Xavier and saw him fighting the same desire, they both cracked up.
Colum narrowed his eyes, but his grin let them know he wasn’t really angry. “I’ll have ye know Irish accents are very sexy.”
Annie pushed up so that she could give him a kiss on the cheek. “The sexiest,” she agreed.
Xavier grunted, and she thought perhaps he’d argue on behalf of his French accent, so she was surprised when he reached across her to cup Colum’s cheek affectionately.
“The sexiest,” he repeated.