Chapter 12 #2
Rafe still stood between her legs, something she took advantage of by lifting her ankles and wrapping them around his waist, moving him even closer so she could gyrate against his pelvis.
“Please,” she whispered breathlessly.
Gio had become accustomed to the sound of her pleas, to her sex squeaks and moans, and he knew what each and every one meant. This “please” meant she wanted them, which proved they hadn’t been the only ones suffering through too many hours of abstinence.
“You’re working from home tomorrow.” Rafe was pulling the boss card. And it was cute that he thought it would work on Keeley.
She shook her head, even as she thrust her pelvis more firmly against Rafe’s covered cock. “No. At some point, we have to learn how to control this.”
They all knew what she meant by this, but Gio wasn’t in the mood to control a damn thing.
Rafe, the king of fighting dirty, unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, shoving his fingers inside her panties.
Keeley gasped when he found her clit, stroking it firmly.
“Fuck self-control,” Rafe muttered. “You’re staying home tomorrow. Keep fighting us on that, and I promise Gio and I will tie you to the bed if that’s the only way to ensure we get our way.”
Keeley’s eyes darkened, not with anger or fear but with arousal. She was by far the most adventurous lover he and Rafe had ever shared. And they’d yet to scratch the surface on all the ways they wanted to take her, all the things they wanted to do to her.
Keeley, their clever girl, had learned exactly how to get her way. She grasped Rafe’s wrist, halting his movement, and said, “I’m going to work at Eclectic.”
Rafe, rather than chastise her, chuckled darkly, shaking off her grip. “I was hoping you’d say that. I look forward to tomorrow.”
Keeley laughed briefly, the sound cut short when Rafe resumed stroking her clit. “So. Do…ahh…I,” she said between gasps, too overwhelmed to get the words out.
Gio continued to play with her breasts. They were sensitive and one of her favorite erogenous zones.
“Gio,” she murmured, in her “stop fucking around and give me more” tone.
He lowered his head and took her nipple into his mouth.
She yelled out Rafe’s name in a way that told Gio his friend had added more fuel to the fire, stoking the flames with his fingers inside her. Keeley came quickly, dropping from her hands to her back on the desk surface, her face flushed, her breathing erratic.
Rafe pulled his hand out of her pants, the two of them looking down at her. It took her a few moments to compose herself. When she opened her eyes, she gave them a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin. “I like the way you guys kiss hello.”
Gio chuckled, then offered her a hand so she could sit up.
She gave them both a southern-regions glance, taking note of their obvious erections. So she was surprised when Rafe helped her stand, then took a step away.
“What about you two?” she asked.
Rafe sighed. “There’s nothing I’d love more than to take you right here, right now, but we ordered Chinese food for dinner, and I suspect it will be here any minute.”
“Shit,” Gio muttered. He’d forgotten about that.
No sooner had he spoken, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll grab the food,” Rafe offered. “Go on and change, beauty, and we’ll meet you in the kitchen. Then—dammit—we can record some more footage for your videos.”
“Sounds good,” she said as she grabbed her shirt and bra and darted upstairs topless. “Back in a flash.”
An hour later, all three of them were back in the office, and Keeley was a lot less happy with them. Her phone was out, and she was waiting to hit record, as had become her habit whenever they were working on the house.
“Oh my God, guys. Are you going to give me something I can use or not?”
Gio glanced over his shoulder and winked at her. “I told you. Joey is the showboat in the family. That guy was born talking and he hasn’t stopped yet. Of course, ninety percent of what he says is bullshit. Aunt Berta likes to say he’s got diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.”
Keeley laughed, then said, “So channel Joey.”
Gio faked a shudder. “Hell no.”
“What if you pretend you’re just talking to me? Like, what are you doing right now?” she asked, hitting the record button.
“Sanding a chair rail.” Gio kept his response short on purpose because pushing Keeley’s buttons was quickly becoming one of his favorite pastimes. She was cute when she got fired up. Like right now, when she rolled her eyes so hard, she had to be staring at her brain.
“Let’s attack this from a different angle,” Keeley said, trying again. “So, Gio,” she said, her tone short of patience. “What is the purpose of a chair rail?”
He grinned at her, then decided to give in a little. “Nowadays, most folks put chair rails in new homes as a decorative feature, but when this house was built, it served a more practical purpose. The rail kept the high backs of chairs from damaging the plaster walls.”
Keeley brightened up, delighted he’d played along. She was convinced they would find a following with these videos and that it would be great marketing for the inn. Considering it was his business, and she was helping, he should probably stop giving her such a hard time.
Unfortunately, his mature side wasn’t as strong as his immature, playful side.
“That’s a great answer!” she praised. “And a terrific segue into some of the history of the house. Rafe, why don’t you talk about when the house was built and—” Keeley stopped, looking at her phone as the ringtone “Boss of Me,” by They Might Be Giants, started playing.
He and Rafe exchanged a glance, aware that song was her tone for Kayden. He hadn’t called Keeley since he left for Vermont a week earlier.
None of them had mentioned Keeley’s brother or how they were going to handle dropping the bomb about the status change in their friendship. Gio called it a relationship in his head, but didn’t say it aloud because…
Fuck.
He was tiptoeing around Rafe and his commitment issues, and he hated himself for it, but Gio was desperate to keep this menage with Keeley going for as long as he could.
Because this was it. What he wanted for the rest of his life.
The three of them fit, even better than Gio had imagined they would.
Unfortunately, he knew where Rafe stood, and he feared that this would all be over the second Keeley asked for more.
He’d been a jackass for pursuing this, for drawing Rafe in. If he’d had a brain in his head, he would have asked Keeley out on his own, would have seduced her into his bed…alone. Would have protected her heart better.
Because Keeley wasn’t hiding her feelings for them as well as she thought. And while his heart skipped a beat every time she looked at him like he was her Prince Charming, his chest tightened painfully when she looked at Rafe the same way…because he knew what was coming.
The longer he let this affair go, the harder it was going to be for both of them when Rafe walked away. When he’d asked her to stay with them, three weeks felt like a short enough time to keep any hurt feelings to a minimum. He could see now he’d been dead wrong about that.
There had never been a single thing Gio couldn’t discuss with Rafe. While he and his brother, Luca, shared that twin bond thing, both experiencing a sixth sense when it came to the other, in many ways, he felt even closer to Rafe.
Yet he was hesitant to bring up the subject of the two of them making a real go of this thing with Keeley.
Too afraid of losing the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Keeley answered the phone. “Hey, Kay. What’s up? How’s the trip?”
Gio didn’t even pretend to turn his attention back to the chair rail. Instead, he leaned against the wall and watched as Keeley listened to her brother talk about his hike, offering him the occasional “mmhmm” and “that sounds cool.”
She glanced up when she realized both he and Rafe were eavesdropping on her conversation, but her poker face was in place. Gio didn’t have a clue what she was thinking or what she was going to say.
Then she laughed at something her brother said.
“I’m glad you were able to get showers.” She pulled the phone away from her mouth and said to them, “Apparently, Aldo was starting to smell a little ripe, so they came off the trail today to get a hotel. They wanted beer, pizza, and showers, not necessarily in that order.”
She listened once again. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m with Rafe and Gio. I was just telling them—” She stopped talking midsentence, frowning. “Why would you want to yell at Rafe?”
Gio had no intention of hiding anything from Kayden, but he wanted to talk to his friend in person, to explain what was happening, to assure him his feelings were genuine.
Her question to Kayden took him aback. How the hell could he know anything about them? And why would he only be mad at Rafe?
Keeley snorted, the sound instantly setting his mind at ease. “He’s not working me to death,” she replied, exasperated. “Why the hell are you looking at me on Find My Friends? You’re supposed to be on vacation.”
That stupid app. None of them had considered the fact that Kayden could look up Keeley anytime he wanted and find her location.
“Yes, I know I’m over here all the time.
” Pause. “Yeah, I realize it’s been late some nights, but that’s because I’m recording Gio and Rafe working on the inn, and we’re night owls.
I told you, I’m posting videos about the project on Facebook and YouTube, showing the work at all stages. It’s great promo for the business.”
Wow. Keeley was one cool customer. Then Gio grimaced, recalling she’d had years of practice when it came to stretching the truth—or lying, actually—to her brother.
She fell silent again as Kayden spoke.
Gio wished he’d told her to put it on speakerphone. Then he realized he was following the conversation pretty well without hearing Kayden’s side of it.
“Oh, believe me, it’s been like pulling teeth. They’re both doing this under duress.”