Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
INSTINCTIVELY I CLENCH MY ASS.
Sterling
Three Weeks Later.
I wondered if I’d have nightmares about what we did. I thought maybe I’d see dismembered fingers in my dreams or something.
But in the last three weeks, I’ve been having more sex and deep sleep than the prior thirty-four years of my life combined.
There hasn’t been room for nightmares or guilt. Hell, when I hear the whoop whoop of a police siren, I get bricked up because I think of Dash. No part of me ever wonders “Is this it?”
I recognize that’s kind of fucked up.
I should be like, I don’t know, internalizing and stewing, pulling at my hair and tossing and turning.
Instead, I’m sleeping in my bed with my partners , having sex I never dreamed of having, kissing and touching the sweetest, most beautiful people I’ve ever known, living my life in a way I thought I never would.
I thought I’d always be the reliable friend, the sidekick, the fun uncle, the other guy.
They gave me the life I always dreamed of, and in return, I will give them everything.
That’s where my mind has been. Them. Us.
Not decomposed body parts in drums and bags.
Dash and I have been back to work for the last few weeks. He’s been happy to report daily that not a single soul has mentioned foul play regarding the abandoned truck near the ravine. Juniper has been staying at our house for the last three weeks, too. She said after everything that’s gone down, she hasn’t been in the mood to make jam. All she wants to do, in her words, not mine, is “Be with my guys.”
It’s fucking sweet, and I love her.
I hated the idea of her sitting at our place, bored out of her mind, feeling uninspired and lonely while Dash and I were at work. Yesterday after I was off of work, I ran by the Eat O Rama and grabbed all the things she’d need for a small but fresh batch of jam.
As soon as she saw the supplies on the counter, she started to cry. Finally, we pulled it out of her that she’s harboring guilt for using her jam for evil.
I smirked when she said that, but made sure she didn’t see me. I knew what she meant—lacing her jam then using the jars to knock out weird men—but still, “Using my jam for evil” was about the most adorable thing she could say.
After one batch of delicious strawberry jam and two very sticky blowjobs, Juniper expressed being ready to “Get back at it.” She’d told Dolly and Hudson to tell all the folks at the farmers market that she threw out her back and would return to her booth as soon as she could. Today we’re taking her back to her place so she can make jam and be part of the market this weekend.
The drive to her place is completely silent.
Because she’s filling so many backlogged orders, she’ll be working around the clock, which means… she won’t be sleeping in my bed with me and Dash.
The three of us have not had a night apart in over three weeks, and now the idea of sleeping without her is so depressing I can hardly stand it. But the fact she’s ready to get back to her jam making is good. She’s healing from everything that’s gone down, and that’s positive.
We get out of my truck but before my door is even shut, I’ve got an idea. A plan. Because leaving Juniper here at her house just… doesn’t work for me.
Dash and I walk behind her, our arms full of boxes of fruit and sugar. “Could you live here? You know, instead of our place?”
He doesn’t even break pace or hesitate. “Yeah, I mean, in my mind, as this thing progressed, I kind of thought we would.”
“Yeah?” I ask, adjusting the second box in my arms so we don’t lose any berries.
He nods around his armful. “Yeah, I mean, all her big pots and canning stuff is here, and the market is on this property nearly. It wouldn’t make sense for her to live at our place. I just, I don’t know. I didn’t feel like I could be the guy to suggest the move.”
“Door’s unlocked, I’m gonna run to the restroom,” Juniper calls, her keys dangling from the gold doorknob as she disappears inside the house.
We stop in our tracks, a few paces from the door. I lower my boxes to the ground, and fold my arms over my chest. “Why do you say that?”
He puts his boxes down, too, sifting a hand through his soft hair. “I live in your house and she lives in her house. Kinda not my place to say either way. Besides, I just wanna be where you guys are.”
My chest squeezes. I can’t say I’ve completely grown comfortable with touching Dash the way that I want to quite yet. I still feel like he’s gonna stop me and laugh and say, What the fuck are you doing, man? I know he loves me but still, he’s so funny and sexy, I still catch myself wondering what he sees in me.
Today, though, I have zero hesitation when I reach out, grab him by the back of the neck and drag his face to mine for a hot kiss. “ We live in our house; she lives in her house,” I tell him, our lips grazing a moment before he eats up my words, kissing me again.
He nods, laughing a little as he collects my boxes and passes them to me, then grabs his own. “Okay, noted. So you wanna move in here?”
I follow him in the house and use my foot to kick the door closed. Juniper’s house phone rings, but we ignore it. She always does, too. Dropping our boxes onto the counter, I start unloading supplies. “I do. Because I know that’s what she’ll want.”
“And it’s got more bedrooms,” Dash adds, setting a ten-pound bag of sugar on the counter.
I cock a brow playfully. “Need your own bedroom?”
He analyzes a jar of vanilla extract before setting it down next on the counter. He always makes sure the wholesalers don’t give Juniper a damaged item and charge her full price. He’s caught a few bad items in the past. “No, but the kids will.”
I freeze, a tray of empty canning jars in my hands slides to the counter with a thud. Luckily nothing breaks. Dash eyes me suspiciously as he continues unloading. “Weird hearing it?” he asks. It’s wild how well the three of us know one another.
Nodding, I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “Yeah.” I chew the inside of my cheek a little, watching him pull out strawberry baskets from the second box. “Also just wrapping my mind around us. One day we’re all bowling and the next, we’re potentially having and raising kids together.” I shrug. “It’s just crazy, that’s all.”
Dash grins, and my pulse leaps, my cock stiffening. “We put a finger in a Ziploc bag so… I guess crazy is our thing.”
Juniper pads down the hall, her blonde hair in her signature sexy style—a crown braid and long, loose waves. Her feet are bare and her white dress swishes around her ankles as she skips toward us, wrapping her arms around our necks, pressing a kiss to each of our cheeks.
“Ahh, the smell of my house,” she beams, beelining for her fridge after our hug. Yanking open the door, she wrinkles her nose. “I need groceries.”
“Juniper,” I start, watching her survey items while blindly plucking a strawberry from the counter, taking it down in one bite, dropping the stem on the counter.
“Hmm?” She pulls out an old Tupperware, tipping it into the trash. Suddenly she slams the door closed and faces us with sadness rimming her eyes. “I was gonna say, I should make orange chicken tonight, since we haven’t had that in a while. But then I realized… I’ll be here. Without you guys.”
“Juni, sweetheart, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” I say, taking her by the hand, leading her to the couch where Dash and I take seats around her. She bounces her knee, eyes welling as she looks between us.
“You changed your minds,” she breathes. “The murder stuff, right?”
Dash laughs and I cup her face with my hand, smoothing my thumb across her lips in an attempt to calm and soothe her. “No, honey, that’s not it. We didn’t change our minds about you. But we did change them about living without you. Even just temporarily.”
Reaching out, Dash garners her attention with a palm to her knee, smoothing up and down her thigh. “We want to live here, in your house, with you.”
She blinks, then erupts in a laugh-sigh hybrid. “I wanted to ask but I thought since my place is so much older…” she says, swiping the tears that no longer mean harm. “Are you guys serious?”
I nod. “Dash, tell her what you told me. You know, about why this house is better for the three of us.”
Dash’s lips curl into the most handsome smile, and the way his fingers curl into Juniper’s knee with love and possession has my cock hardening. “This is your home. The place you make your jam. The place you grew up and raised your sisters. So it should be the place our kids grow up, where we raise our family.”
“Whenever that happens,” I add, wanting her to know there’s no stress or timeline. I may be the oldest, but I’m patient. I have them and I never thought I would—everything else now is just a goddamn bonus.
She smiles, but I know Juniper Sky like the back of my hand. That glint in her eye isn’t just happiness. “Let’s celebrate this decision before I get to making jam.”
Dash’s proverbial tail wags and my cock presses into my fly painfully. “How so, sweetheart?”
Slowly, she reaches out, slipping her palm over the hard ridge of my erection, over my denim. “Let’s try something we haven’t before, yeah?”
Instinctively I clench my ass.
We’ve done a lot of things in the last few weeks. But Dash and I have not had sex. Not together, not without Juniper between us. I’ve not been inside him; he’s not been inside me. We’ve tasted and touched, explored in other erotic, wild ways. But we’ve never actually, directly had sex.
I haven’t gone down on him, either.
I’m ready for both. Or at least, I know I’m ready to begin exploring both, I just don’t know how to start. Making love to Juniper with Dash is a crazy hot experience, but one I’m well-versed in. Pleasing a man? I don’t know if I can.
I don’t want to be bad at it.
“Yeah?” I ask, my voice thinning as my nerves intensify.
“Not that yet,” she says, reading my expression. “You two decide when you’re ready for that .”
My eyes drift to Dash, but there’s no discomfort between us. He smiles at me, and my chest aches at how easy it is when you’re with the right people. “What did you have in store?” I ask.
She smiles and gets up, walking slowly down the hall backward on the balls of her feet. “C’mon, I’ll show you guys.”
Under Juni’s orders, the three of us stand naked in her bedroom until she pushes Dash down into the chair near her dressing table.
“By the time we leave this room, we’re all going to have given head,” she says, one hand on Dash’s knee as she lowers to hers. He spreads his wide, his pinkened balls looking plump atop the seat. In his fist he holds his cock, hard and sticky, and I can’t help but steal a glance at his underwear on the floor, nearly drooling at the precum he left inside.
“C’mon,” Juni says to me as I stand back, naked, itching to cover up as I hold my cock against my belly. I’m out of my element in pleasing Dash, and it’s giving me a major case of insecurity.
I don’t move. Dash’s head falls back against the chair as he rolls his fingertip around his slit, groaning.
“I—” I want to, but I don’t know if I can.
“I’ll teach you, Sterl,” she offers, smiling, pushing her blonde hair off her shoulder, exposing the blushed tip of her breast.
“D,” I start, nervous, sweat sliding down my spine. “Do you want me to?” Fear slithers through me at the idea that he could say no.
He laughs, stroking his erection, showing me his glistening palm. “Look what you both do to me. I’m a dripping mess half the time.” He leans forward, steals an aggressive kiss from Juniper’s lips and pushes his cock down, toward her. She wraps her hand around it as his hand comes to the back of her head, nudging her open mouth down on his cock. “Mmmm,” he purrs as Juniper begins to suckle his swollen tip. “Please. I’m dying to get in your mouth, Sterl. I’ll suck you so good after, too. I promise.”
I drop to my knees as if my life is on the line, and rest a large hand on his thigh, watching up close as Juni sucks him. She pops off, holding his cock between us, angling it toward my mouth.
“Start by using your tongue,” she says softly. “Trace the head a few times, then seal your lips around his crown, then just hold it there.”
I nod and catch Dash’s eyes before I take him into my mouth. He winks, shooting me a sexy, reassuring grin. Juniper uses her other hand to grab my bobbing cock, holding me in a loose grip. “Now,” she says, “taste him.”
I keep my eyes open as I trace his head with my tongue, just the way Juni said. His moans wash over me, and my cock twitches at the salty taste of him. His head is slick and wide on my tongue, and when I wrap my lips around his crown, his hand comes to my head.
“Fuck, Sterl, your mouth is heaven. Just like Juni’s.”
Just like Juni’s is a compliment. I’ve felt her mouth. It is heaven. Totally.
Juniper strokes me with one hand, using her other to tenderly swipe over my spine, calming my nerves. It’s everything I need right now, and with Dash’s hand in my hair and his moans of affirmation flooding the room, I’ve never felt so goddamn good.
“Now take him a little deeper,” Juniper offers, leaning in to press a kiss against my throat. I sink my mouth down his steely cock another inch, the pressure in my groin mounting as Juniper’s soft hand makes long, slow passes down my weepy cock.
“Hmm,” Dash moans. “Your mouth feels too good, Sterl. You’re gonna make me come, baby.”
“You’re doing good,” Juniper whispers, praising me. Their words of affirmation have my chest tight and my cock aching, and the first spurt of hot, silky cum that ribbons along my tongue sends me over the edge. My groin tightens as my cock spews release, making Juniper squeal. Scrambling, she lowers to put her mouth on my cock, catching my orgasm as I swallow Dash’s one shot at a time.
Dash roars through his orgasm—it’s one of the best things that I’ve ever tasted. The way he tenderly strokes my cheek as I suck the last of his cum out of him, and how Juniper rubs my balls softly as she suckles at my cock, taking the rest of my load, I’ve never felt so good. So high.
“I’m sorry about that,” I tell Juniper once Dash’s cock softens, and I slip it out of my mouth. I look up at Dash. “I know you were going to return the favor after but… I got too worked up.”
He smiles at me, leaning forward to kiss me, sweeping his tongue through the remainder of his flavor. “That’s so hot, Sterl. You coming from sucking me is fuck hot.”
Juniper gets to her knees and kisses us both. “You guys wanna help make some jam?”
Dash crumples into the chair. “Will I get to taste it off your naked tits?”
She playfully smacks his thigh as I get to my feet then help her get to hers. Looking between us, she finally says, “Probably.”
Dash smacks his palms together and jumps up, not moving to cover his soft naked cock whatsoever. His openness bleeds into me, and I drop my hand from where it hovered over my own soft cock.
“Let’s make some jam.”