15. Monroe
fifteen
Monroe
I ordered Alec and Cara into the bath once we could move again. Alec hadn’t taken it easy on her, but the way she’d writhed on his dick like she needed to be completely owned by him was the hottest thing I’d ever seen—until they’d licked up my cum, feasting on it.
I cleaned up the room-service dishes, stacking them neatly outside the door, and remade the bed. Now I had a phone call to make that was overdue. I’d spoken with Zali about Cara before, but we weren’t a thing then. I wanted to be more than that with her now.
She picked up after a couple of rings. “Hi, Dad. Having fun in Brissie?”
“Yeah, it’s great. You got a minute? There’s something I want to speak with you about.” My heart was pounding in my chest, nerves making my palms sweat.
“Of course.” There was hesitation in her voice, a concern that she tried to bury, and I loved her for it.
Zali was a bit of a loose cannon, never believing that the rules applied to her. She did what she wanted, when she wanted and was never afraid to rock the boat. I think that’s what made her so good at what she did—she was a police cyber investigator by day, but that wasn’t all. No one on the police force ended up with millions by the time they were eighteen and probably hundreds of millions by their midtwenties.
I’d turned a blind eye to the shady shit she got up to, not because I didn’t care, but because I knew I’d drive her away if I tried to stop her. It had taken a fuck-tonne of therapy to stop myself from wrapping her in cotton wool and smothering her with my protectiveness. I’d struggled to give her the leeway she needed to thrive. I hoped that our relationship was solid enough to make it through this.
Zali was thirteen when Ezra had come along. He’d been ready to arrest me, but then realized it was her who’d hacked into a telecommunications provider to get revenge for them failing, over and over again, to remove my late wife’s name from our telephone bills. Ezra and I had become close, and our friendship had solidified over the next decade. He hadn’t hesitated to recruit her. I hadn’t wanted him to, but he promised that he could supervise and guide her to do whatever it was she did the safe way. He hadn’t once taken any risks with her wellbeing.
Now, twelve years later, he was one of her boyfriends.
I’d known immediately that he would do whatever it took to protect her, including risking his job to avoid arresting her. He’d proven over and over again that he was genuine. I trusted that he would have stopped her if she risked putting herself in danger.
He’d burn the world down to protect her and his men.
Zali may be headstrong and independent, she may be stubborn and more driven than any other person I’d met, and she may do things that were probably illegal in a dozen countries, but she had a heart of gold. She was loyal to a fault and would move heaven and earth for the people she loved. She and I had a bond that couldn’t be broken, one that had been forged in the fires of the hell we’d walked through together.
At least I hoped so.
Best case scenario, she’d say she was happy for Cara and me. Worst case, I’d have to remind her that she’d slept with my friend first. Talk about being a hypocrite though. I’d been so angry with Ezra. I’d accused him of being a creeper, grooming her from when she was a teenager. Like I’d taken issue, she might have a serious problem with Cara and I being together.
“Talk to me, Dad. What’s going on?”
“I like Cara.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, and I swallowed hard.
“ Like like or like?” she asked after far too long.
“I… don’t know what that means.” I laughed at the ridiculousness of what she’d said despite my very real worry she’d chew my head off.
Zali chuckled, the sound husky and warm. “Do you like her as in wanting to date her, or as a friend?”
“I want to date her. I am dating her,” I confessed. “I know we’ve spoken about her before. I told you that I was coming on this trip to help her out and that she seemed lovely. But I neglected to tell you that I’m—” I huffed out another laugh, this one filled with nerves. “—I’m smitten with her, Zali. She’s something else.”
“She is,” Zali agreed. I could hear the smile in her voice but that was it. She didn’t say anything more.
“Say something. Please,” I begged.
“Oh, were you waiting for my blessing?” Her tone was teasing, and her laugh buoyed me from fear to hope. “You don’t need my blessing, Dad, but you have it. I saw the way you looked at her the night you two met. Cara is beautiful and she deserves the best. You’re the best.”
I blinked back the sting in my eyes and smiled, thanking the heavens that my daughter thought so much of me.
“And as for you, I want you to find someone who’ll love you without reservation. I want them to be genuine and kind and have a gentle soul. Cara’s it, every one of those things. She has the biggest, most beautiful heart of anyone I know.”
“I love you, Zali,” I whispered. My voice cracked with emotion, and I sniffed back the tears. “You’re all those things, too, you know.”
Zali barked out a laugh. “Hardly, Dad, but I’ll take the compliment.” She was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed. “Dad, I don’t want to be alone tomorrow. Can you come home?”
“Absolutely. I’ll be there.”
Tomorrow was the anniversary of the day we’d spread Asher’s ashes. We finally had closure after not knowing what had happened to him for so long. But the memories hit both Zali and me hard. It wasn’t easy mourning a future my son didn’t get to have, one we missed with him. At least when we’d said goodbye to my grandparents, we had the solace of them having lived long, happy lives. But Asher’s life had barely started. He’d missed out on so much.
And it was my fault—I’d failed him. If I was there, things might have turned out differently. Maybe I could have saved him. I would never forgive myself for my failures there. The heavy weight of the cross I bore because of it was my penance.
***
I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. One minute Cara was yawning and asked me to hold her, and the next I’d woken up with a start. Disoriented, I blinked my eyes open, registering the warmth of the person tucked into my side. Cara. She was curled around me and sound asleep. I breathed her in, the sweet scent of her shampoo and smell of sex lingering on her skin. I could get used to that. I hoped I would.
The room was pitch-black, but I could see that Alec wasn’t on Cara’s other side. He must have left sometime after we’d crashed.
It was confounding to think of what I’d done with him. I waited for the freakout to kick in, the what-the-fuck-was-I-thinking moment. But it didn’t.
I didn’t regret it.
Seeing the look on Cara’s face as she watched us, the way her pupils dilated even after multiple orgasms, had encouraged me to try it. But I’d enjoyed it. I’d wanted it. Alec was sexy. I hadn’t thought that about another man before, but I’d never met anyone like him either. He had me wanting to touch him and to be touched by him.
What did that make me? Did it change who I was? Did it change how I identified? It was sex. So many people could brush it off as being nothing, but that wasn’t the way I was built. Sex meant something to me. It was more than just getting off. I didn’t do random hookups—it was why I’d been celibate for longer than I cared to remember—but it had been a spur of the moment decision. I was oddly okay with that, though. It wasn’t cheap and transactional. There was something between the three of us—a spark of attraction and lust. At first, I’d thought it was Cara that had me captivated, but then he’d touched me, and it was like a door opening to let the light shine into a corner of me I hadn’t known existed.
Maybe that discovery was enough. Maybe I didn’t need to label it. We had less than two weeks together. Once we went back to our normal lives, I’d probably write this thing between us off as a middle-aged experiment. Maybe it was a midlife crisis.
The pang in my gut, a twist and drop, took me by surprise. But the certainty that followed, the calmness that descended, left me in no doubt. This was no midlife crisis. I wasn’t experimenting. I wanted to be with Cara. I didn’t want to give her up. But even if I took her out of the equation, I could see myself being with Alec too. The three of us fit together like puzzle pieces slotting in and creating a bigger whole.
I liked them both.
I wanted to be with them both for as long as I could. If that meant two weeks of getting to know one another, then I wanted the chance.
I had no idea how to do this. I hadn’t dated in over twenty years. Was this even dating? Hooking up?
Cara shifted, separating us, and I took the opportunity to slip out of bed and get a drink. I scrubbed my eyes and padded out into the lounge room.
Light from the city filtered in through the open curtains, giving the room an ethereal glow. The sight took my breath away.
Sprawled out facedown on the sofa with an arm and a leg hanging off it was Alec. Stark naked and fast asleep, he looked peaceful and so very very hot. His body was incredible. His broad tattooed shoulders tapered down to a slim waist and an ass that was round and meaty. My mouth watered. His thick legs were powerful, the muscles in every part of him pronounced and perfectly sculpted. I wanted to touch him everywhere just to see where his hot buttons were.
My dick woke up, hardening as I gazed at him. It looked like my cock was answering my sexuality questions for me—he was definitely interested in what he saw.
I watched Alec’s chest rise and fall in a slow rhythm. His hair fell over his face, and I padded toward him. The urge to touch him again struck me hard. I wanted to breathe him in, to taste him.
His lips were slightly parted, and his dark lashes fanned out on his cheeks. He breathed out a sigh, and I stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t be selfish. He had a game tomorrow. He needed his sleep.
He needed a bed, not a sofa.
Should I ask him to come to bed? Should I insist he go back to his room? Urgh, I didn’t know the boundaries here, and I hated that. Did we just touch because we were in the moment? Was it only during sex, or was I allowed to show him affection? Would he even welcome it? He seemed pretty hands-on with Cara, but was that because he was interested in her? Did he only say those things to me to make Cara hot?
Alec opened one eye, startling me. I froze. Did I wake him up or not?
He blinked and lifted his head, watching me as I watched him. Heat crawled up my throat, my cheeks burning under his scrutiny. He licked his lips, and my semi pulsed, growing harder the longer he watched me.
“Why are you watching me sleep?” His voice was scratchy and heavy with exhaustion.
“Yeah, ah… needed a drink,” I fumbled. I cleared my throat and gestured to the minibar where the bottles of water were.
I didn’t know where to look. All I could focus on when I gazed at him was that spectacular body, and I didn’t want to objectify him. My cock was making things awkward enough without me ogling him too.
“Well, this is awkward,” Alec commented dryly.
My shoulders slumped, and I exhaled heavily. I was screwing this up. Not five minutes ago, I’d wanted something more with them. Now I couldn’t even look at him. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, shifting onto his knees. His cock was heavy between his legs, and he palmed it, casually adjusting himself even as his brow furrowed in concern.
I swallowed, remembering his taste, the musky heat of him and the way he moaned. “I… I’ve never done that before,” I admitted. “Have you?”
Alec huffed out a laugh and rubbed his cheek, blinking his eyes open and clearing the sleep from them. “You need to be a little more specific.”
“Hooking up with a guy. Is that what we did?” My voice was uncertain even to my own ears.
He patted the sofa where he’d been lying, and I sank down onto it. The warmth of the leather was a shock compared to the coolness of the air in the room.
“I’d call it hooking up,” he finally said with a hint of that wicked smirk in place, the one that made me all hot under the collar. “And to answer your question, yes, I have hooked up with a guy before. I’m bisexual.”
Alec flicked his gaze down and eyed my dick like it was a lollypop. He palmed his cock and gave his hardening length a slow pump. The sight drove me wild. Precum leaked from my slit as I imagined him in my mouth again. Or better yet, him going down on me. What would it feel like to sink into that sexy mouth? That perfect body?
“Are you really a bottom?” I asked without conscious thought. I gripped myself and stroked, matching Alec’s lazy pumps.
He groaned and tightened his fist, jacking himself harder for a moment before letting go completely. He turned around, facing away from me. He spread his legs and braced himself on the armrest, arching his back in a clear invitation.
I swallowed hard. His hole was pink and tight, and a seam ran from it down his heavy balls. Aside from Cara in the throes of an orgasm, her legs spread and her pretty pussy taking Alec’s cock, this was the sexiest sight I’d ever seen. I watched enraptured as Alec took his cock in hand again and pumped slowly.
“Yeah,” he rasped. “I want your monster inside me. I want you to tear me open and make me feel you for days.”
Fuck me.
“I….” I squeezed the base of my cock, the throb growing more urgent. My balls drew up tight, and I groaned when Alec squeezed his hole tighter, his hamstrings and ass tensing up.
I was distracted by his dick.
I was dickstracted.
“Show me,” I breathed, my hand moving faster over my cock. Tingles rushed over my body, and my hips jacked up without any conscious thought from me—like I was a marionette and he was controlling all the strings.
Alec groaned and dropped his head low, tilting his hips higher. “Spit on my hole,” he begged.
I did. My saliva landed, wetting him slowly and dripping down to his sac. My mark on him was so hot.
He let go of his cock and reached between his legs. His fingers circled his hole, spreading my spit, and I growled. Possession flared inside me, and I clenched my jaw tight to stop the word on the tip of my tongue— ours .
Mine and Cara’s.
He pressed his middle finger against his hole and sank inside himself to his first knuckle in one go. I shivered, watching as his sphincter contracted tight, squeezing him. Jesus Christ, I wanted my dick in there.
I froze.
My breath caught in my throat and my muscles seized. I wanted him. Any question, any doubt I had about whatever my sexuality was, didn’t matter. All I knew was that Alec turned me on. It didn’t matter what label I attached to myself. I was attracted to Alec. I wanted him. I wanted sex with him as much as I wanted sex with Cara.
The differences between his body and Cara’s turned me on—his hard angles to her soft curves, his rough stubble and coarse hair to her smooth skin. It was her shyness and his confidence that drew me to them. But so were the precious seconds where they showed what was underneath—Alec’s uncertain moments, the ones where he seemed to shrink into himself and let his vulnerability show and the ones where Cara shone with that spunk she only showed her closest friends.
He was sexy and uninhibited. She was gorgeous and inexperienced. But they both knew what they wanted, and they reached out and went for it. That took a kind of bravery that was inspiring. I had no idea if Alec was out, but if he wasn’t, he’d placed a level of trust in me that was humbling. So had Cara. Alec and I being her first, and at the same time? Yeah, inspiring.
Alec added a second finger, and I exhaled heavily on a moan. My cock was hard enough to hammer nails, and my pulse was beating a staccato rhythm in my veins.
He rested his face against the armrest and gripped his cock tight, spearing his ass with his other fingers. I was captivated by the tight clasp of his hole around them. His needy moan ramped up the desire pulsing through me. My balls drew up tight, and another spurt of precum leaked from my tip, lubing my hand.
“Spit on me again,” Alec gasped.
I leaned in close and let my saliva drip onto his hole and watched as it slid down around his fingers. Alec whimpered and shoved them deeper. His hole was stretched around him, pink and smooth as he scissored his fingers.
I nuzzled his ass cheek, that meaty muscle taut under my lips. Alec let out a strangled groan and bucked his hips back, pressing against me harder. The noises he was making were obscene and hotter than hell. I licked his cheek, then bit him and sucked a mark onto his skin. Alec shouted, the sound muffled by the couch.
I shot to the edge, the tingle in my spine taking me by surprise. I grasped his hand, stilling his movements, and shifted so I was behind him. “On your belly,” I growled. “Want to feel you against me when I come. Mark up that sexy ass.”
Alec dropped down, his fingers slipping free of his ass. His hole was spit-soaked and loosened, and it took all my strength to stop myself from lining up and plunging home. But I was far too big to do that to anyone, especially without lube. Alec would need a fuck-tonne more stretching before I could get inside him.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t get him off.
I braced my weight against the armrest and pressed my thighs on either side of his, trapping him underneath me. He moaned long and low.
I pressed my hips against him, my cock nestling in the dip in his ass. Alec whimpered, and I rolled my hips, sliding my full length against him.
“Yesss,” he hissed and parted his cheeks, creating a valley for me to tunnel into.
I was dripping, leaking precum like a tap, but I spat on my cock, rubbing my saliva over my length to ease the way. Alec cried out and shifted his hips before pushing his cheeks together.
Blinded by desire, I let loose and fucked the tight clasp with snaps of my hips and long strokes. Alec’s breathing turned choppy, and mine stuttered out of my lungs in short gasps and grunts.
“Fuck, I’m close,” I moaned as my balls slapped against his ass and the head of my cock parted those muscles.
Alec gasped and writhed under me. “Give it to me,” he begged, his voice choked and desperate.
My orgasm hit like a Cat-5 cyclone, obliterating every thought. I was a mass of live-wire nerve endings sparking and igniting as pulse after pulse emptied from me. They coated Alec, pooling in the dip of his spine and leaving his skin shiny and wet. My arms were like jelly, and I struggled to hold myself up, but I reached down and rubbed my cum into Alec’s skin. That need to beat my chest and growl “ours” calmed down. My breath heaved and sweat dripped from me.
Alec whimpered, and I realized I’d left him hanging. I pumped my hips forward, my softening dick pressing against his hole.
“Yes,” he moaned. “More. Harder.”
I did it again, grinding against him. My cock nudged his hole. He canted his hips, pressing back into me, and I thrust hard. Alec’s muscles locked up tight under me, and he cursed, ragged sobs wracking his body as his hips twitched over and over until he finally went limp under me.
I collapsed on him, my arms giving out and my whole body floating in a state of bliss. I nuzzled his nape and licked a bead of sweat from his back. Blindly reaching for a piece of clothing, I found a linen napkin that I’d missed in my earlier cleanup and shifted off Alec, moving back onto my knees behind him. I wiped him down, but he waved me off when I went to clean the leftover spunk.
“Leave it. Want to wear it,” he mumbled, too blissed out to do more than grunt.
“You need to sleep,” I murmured. “Come to bed.”
“Can’t. Need to get back to my room.” He rubbed his face against the cushion and groaned. “I’ll get fined if I’m caught not sleeping there.”
“Shit,” I muttered, torn. Did I walk Alec back or stay with Cara? I didn’t want to risk her waking up and not finding either of us here, but I didn’t want Alec going back to his room by himself either.
“I’ll see myself out.” He sounded resigned, sad somehow, like this was normal for him.
That wouldn’t do.
I could explain to Cara where I’d been. She’d understand—I was sure of it. I wouldn’t have Alec feeling like I’d so easily discard him after that.
“I’ll walk you there.” I slapped his ass and groaned at the firmness under my palm.
Alec shifted, stretching like a cat. That desire to touch everywhere and mark him up flared again, and when he hauled himself up and I saw the cum stain on the leather, I preened, pride lighting up like fireworks in my chest. I’d done that—I’d made another man come so hard he could barely lift himself out of it.