Page 19

19

Aldous

A ldous barely heard the knock at the door over the thundering of his own heart. He leant against the doorway of the larger of the suite’s two bedrooms. Jasmine had commandeered one of the armchairs in the main living space, resting her snout over the arm after a busy night of being fawned over.

“It’s open,” he called, grateful his voice didn’t crack.

The door opened to reveal a frowning Roman standing ahead of Bri. There was suspicion in his stance after a week of rejection, but Aldous assuaged his fears.

“It’s just me in here.” He’d checked. Rigorously. Aldous held his hand out to Bri, needing her softness to quell the hard edges of the tension quaking through him. “Come here.”

It was a relief when she stepped into his embrace, uncoiling his nerves with her kiss. “Are you okay?” she whispered, worried eyes looking up at him.

“Am I staying or am I going?” Roman interrupted. He lingered at the door as though he expected to be sent packing at any moment, but Aldous took his strength from Bri. She accepted them both, so why couldn’t he?

“Come in. Lock the door.”

Roman’s gaze whipped up to examine his own, but whatever he saw there made him obey.

Aldous almost flinched at the sharp metallic snick of the lock. Almost. “The way I’ve been treating you… I’m sorry. You haven’t deserved it.”

“Perhaps not.” Stepping forward, Roman’s expression softened with compassion. “And if you were anyone else, I’d have told you to get fucked. But I understand why .”

In the corner of his eye, he could see Bri’s focus jumping between them. She deserves to know too, doesn’t she? “How much do you… understand ?”

Roman seemed to know what he wanted. Because he always did. “I know you were…” A muscle in his jaw jumped in anger. “I know you were abused by your headmaster.”

“ What ?” Bri was aghast.

But Roman wasn’t finished. “I know your family tortured and killed him for what he did to you.” He stepped closer again, so close that Aldous’s instincts were screaming at him to flee. “And I also know they were far kinder than I would have been.”

Bri’s whisper was as soft as snow. “Is that true, Aldous?”

He nodded, sliding the back of his knuckles against her jawline. “Your family isn’t the only one with secrets, love.” He kissed her, wanting to wipe that horrified look of loss off her face.

She pulled back. “But, but are you okay ? I mean—”

“Of course I’m okay. I’m with you.” Slowly, Aldous’s amber eyes drifted over to the man watching him, his heartbeat picking up as his courage readied itself. “Both of you.”

Pure, unadorned relief shone in Roman’s eyes. “If you’re not ready, you don’t have to force it.”

Aldous let out an unexpected laugh. “When I’m around you, nothing is forced. I force myself to not crave it. To not slam you against the wall and punish you for making me feel this way.”

Roman lifted an easy shoulder, a hint of a grin curling the edge of his lip. “Doesn’t really sound like much of a punishment to me.”

“You’re an arsehole,” he snorted.

“Careful,” Roman warned him, lowering his voice as he leant in. “I’m starting to think you don’t actually hate me that much.”

Aldous allowed himself to be pulled towards him by the current of tension flowing between them, his eyes lowering to linger on Roman’s lips. “You know I don’t.”

Roman’s scarred brow quirked, letting out a huff of laughter close enough to brush against Aldous’s skin. “Then act like it.”

He didn’t think. He just listened to his instincts.

Aldous eliminated the gap between them, capturing his lips and threading a hand through his dark hair. He angled Roman’s head to deepen the kiss, earning him a deep groan as he licked into his mouth.

The purr of approval that rumbled through Roman’s broad chest had his cock hardening. His gut gave an unpleasant clench, but he ignored it, choosing to concentrate on the man in front of him—on the teasing, claiming strokes of Roman’s tongue and the scrape of his rugged jaw.

Roman pulled back, his eyes darkened with arousal. “Can I touch you?”

If he was being truthful, he wanted to say yes, but something stopped him from saying that one little word.

Instead, Aldous gave him the same answer he gave Bri. “My head. My hands. Nowhere else.”

Roman didn’t need to be told twice, gently cradling his jaw with both hands. The hairs on the back of Aldous’s neck stood up, adding another pulse of arousal to the base of his cock. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this. To touch you.”

He wanted a laugh, remembering when he and Jensen had called Roman after that first meeting with Vivian—and Roman’s disappointment at it not being a booty call. “I think I have some idea.”

Because he’d wanted it too, no matter how much he tried to suppress it.

He shuddered as Roman’s lips moved to his neck, wanting to drown in the sensation. “Roman,” he moaned, letting the wall hold him up because fuck knows he didn’t trust his legs anymore, not as the hard lines of his body met his. A start of adrenaline kicked him when he felt Roman’s erection pressed against his own, but the fear was quickly smothered by a blistering hot rush of lust. He fisted his hands in Roman’s shirt, itching to tear it off him but not wanting to break the connection long enough to do so. “Fuck, yes.”

Opening his eyes, he realised they were being watched with rapt attention.

Bri sat on the bed, biting into her bottom lip with a familiar expression on her face. The same expression as when she watched him go down on her.

“Enjoying yourself?” he huffed.

With a curve to her lip, she nodded.

“Then get naked.” It was a command, his voice threaded with steel. “Maybe tonight you’ll have two men licking your pussy instead of one.”

Roman’s laugh interrupted the sensual assault of his kiss. “Fucking hell, Aldous. Who knew you had a mouth on you?”

His smile was one of masculine arrogance. “She did. Didn’t you, love?”

“Maybe.” She smirked coquettishly, pulling her dress over her head to reveal the angelic white of her matching set beneath.

Aldous didn’t think he could have been any more aroused than he already was, but that nearly sent him over the edge. He locked eyes with Roman, his lips swollen with kisses. “I think we should go and give my wife what she wants.”

“And here I thought you were going to be a shrinking violet.”

His eyes crinkled in amusement. “I hope you didn’t get your hopes up.”

Roman’s hips rolled against his, earning him a groan of pleasure. “It got something up.”

“Good,” he rasped. “Now go and put it to good use.”

Roman gave him a soft, unexpectedly sweet kiss before turning to join Bri.

While Aldous sagged against the wall and tried to figure out what the fuck just happened. His heart pounded, but it wasn’t fear his blood was singing with. It was something achingly similar to relief.

He’d half expected to be crippled by a wave of anxiety the moment Roman’s lips left his skin, but just like when he was in bed with Bri, the traumatised part of his brain seemed to shut off.

As though it realised he was safe.

“Aldous?” Bri’s voice broke through his thoughts.

“Are you okay?” Roman asked, a lethal stillness cementing him in place.

“I’m fine,” he realised, as surprised as either of them. “I didn’t say you could stop though.”

A wicked smile curved Roman’s lips, but he couldn’t disguise the relief in his eyes. He unclipped Bri’s bra, swiping the straps from her shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. Her lacy panties quickly followed, leaving her naked as she stood before them. Roman pulled her hair over one shoulder, his lips finding her neck.

Aldous approached, running his hands over her exposed skin and ending at her breasts. His thumbs flicked across her dark nipples in tandem. “Are you gonna let us take care of you?”

She nodded, her eyes closing in pleasure and her hand resting on the tall bedpost for support.

He kissed the other side of her neck, trailing downwards until he reached her breasts. Bri cried out as his lips closed around a nipple, sucking until it was a hardened peak before lashing it with his tongue. When he thought she could take no more, he moved to the other one, starting all over again.

“Lift your leg up.” He heard Roman telling her, surprised to see him on his knees behind her. “On the bed, baby. That’s it, spread yourself for me.”

Wet sounds filled the air, obscene and erotic. Bri’s answering moan was high, one arm coming to rest on his shoulders and the other clinging to the bedpost for dear life.

Strangely, he didn’t mind her touching him below the neck—but he had other things to concentrate on. Unhooking himself from her touch, he placed it on the post. “Both hands on the bedpost, love. You’re going to need it.”

Bri obeyed as he lowered to his knees. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

On the floor, Roman was waiting for him, licking her essence off his lips with a cavalier smirk.

Impulse struck him. He hauled Roman close by his collar for a brief kiss, humming at the taste lingering there—before going directly to the source.

Aldous groaned as he split his wife with one devious stroke of his flattened tongue. Her tangy sweetness exploded in his mouth, her feminine scent lighting up the feral, animalistic part of his brain that made it easy to abandon reason. All it demanded was more.

It wasn’t his name she cried, however. “ Roman !”

Roman’s tongue had been even more devious, delving into the puckered entrance exposed by her position. “Good Roman or bad Roman?”

“A warning would have been nice!”

“Doesn’t answer my question, sweetcheeks.” Roman tapped her arse with his palm in a quick slap , but Aldous didn’t pause, his tongue flicking across her clit.

“G—good. Just really fucking unexpected.” Her hand came down to rest in Aldous’s dark hair, her nails suddenly scraping across his scalp when Roman resumed his foray.

He groaned into her heat, dipping his tongue down into her wetness to swallow it down. Savage desire urged him on, faster, harder, rougher . Roman’s moans and grunts and licks made it even worse, but the carnal noises leaving Bri’s throat nearly had him tumbling over the edge.

“Inside me,” she pleaded, her legs shaking with arousal or exertion. He didn’t know which.

Aldous got there first, sliding two fingers inside her. He undulated them slowly, timing them with the slow, laborious strokes of his tongue. A move he’d learnt over the past week would have her whimpering and panting with need.

Unlike the past week, though, this time there was the added sensation of Roman’s tongue occasionally brushing against his fingers. His cock pulsed in his trousers, staining his boxers with his pre-cum in a steadily growing patch.

Bri’s eyes rolled back in her head as she cloaked him in her arousal. She sagged against the bedpost, clutching it with all her strength.

When she began to pant, he knew she was close. He locked his free arm around her upper thigh for support, noticing Roman do the same to her other leg.

Come on, love . Break for us.

A choked gasp sounded from above him. Bri slapped a hand over her mouth as she began to shudder in earnest, soaking his palm with her release.

Aldous’s growl of victory only had her shaking further, until wet trails of her arousal ran down his forearm to gather at his elbow in a salty puddle.

Her muffled cries filled the room. With every second that passed, he held up more of her weight, until at last her moans stopped and she let go of the bedpost, collapsing onto the bed in a high, relaxed sigh.

Leaving him and Roman knee to knee.

“Maybe next time we can swap.” Roman smirked, wiping his bottom lip with the edge of his thumb. His dark eyes were alive with amusement.

Before marrying Bri, Aldous would have scoffed at the idea that there would even be a next time. After everything that had passed between them, he knew they’d crossed a line somewhere. Was it on the wedding night, when they’d acted as a team without thinking? Or the records room in Mexico? Or even in the cabana? At each point, he’d had the opportunity to call things off.

And yet he never had.

“Maybe we will,” Aldous accepted, getting to his feet and offering his hand out.

Surprise flared on Roman’s face, but he took it, letting Aldous haul him to his feet without hesitation, until they stood face-to-face, chest-to-chest, heart-to-heart. There was a quiet confidence to Roman, one Aldous envied.

Even now, his brain fought to revolt. Little electrical pathways of dread and trepidation lit up inside, fighting what his heart wanted. Just like it had with Bri.

With Roman, those alarm signals were even louder. He was a man with the knowledge and know-how to hurt people for a living. It went against Aldous’s every instinct to trust him. For a moment, he let his forehead rest against Roman’s, closing his eyes before it all overwhelmed him.

A prickle on the back of his neck told him they were being watched—again.

Aldous glanced down at the bed, not at all surprised to see Bri’s eyes were on them. “Come here,” she murmured, her hands reaching out. “Both of you.”

“Have we not satisfied you enough?” Roman asked, crawling onto the bed. His long body stretched out beside her. Aldous mirrored him on her other side, kissing a path up to her neck.

Bri hummed as Roman took her lips in a soft kiss. “I’m very satisfied. But judging by the two hard-ons stabbing me on either side, I’m the only one.” She shrugged innocently. “Perhaps I could be of some assistance.”

The rest of Aldous stiffened. She was including him in that.

“What a very considerate wife you have, Aldous.” Roman’s smile was positively roguish. “What are you proposing?”

Her nervous gaze flicked over to him, but in the end she shook her head. “I don’t want to push you into doing something you’re not ready for.”

“Tell me,” Aldous offered her a gentle promise. “I won’t bite.”

Roman’s lips swept under her jawline. “I will, if you ask nicely enough.”

“I don’t want to stop tonight.” Bri’s throat bobbed. “I want to feel you inside me—one of you, or both.”

To his credit, Roman waited for him to answer first.

When it came down to it, Aldous didn’t know what answer he wanted to give. Part of him wanted to say yes. He’d come that far.

But the rest of him was terrified he would panic at another human being touching him intimately. Though they hadn’t plagued him for years, he worried he’d have a fully-fledged panic attack and ruin the experience for Bri.

She’d be losing her virginity too.

That solidified his decision.

Aldous knew he couldn’t give Bri what she wanted tonight.

But Roman could.

He stroked her hair, letting the smooth slide of the strands across his palm ground him. “I want to watch tonight. I want it all to be about you. Is that okay?”

Bri began to nod, her lips curling in amusement. “My mother would be horrified. I saved my virginity for my husband only to give it to another man after my marriage.”

“Virginity means fuck all,” Roman murmured against her neck. He manoeuvred himself between her legs, hooking her knees around his hips. “But don’t worry, cutie patootie. He’s sure as shit going to play an active role.”

Eyebrow raised, Aldous’s intent gaze travelled over both of them. “Am I?”

Roman gave him a long, heated look. “Lay against the pillows, Aldous.”

Eons ago, an order like that from a man would have sent fear blistering across his skin. “On one condition,” he bit back. “Take off your clothes.”

Roman blinked, a grin stretching across his face. A pulse of something hammered in Aldous’s chest. There was no denying Roman was an attractive man, but that jaw-dropping smile wrapped its way around him and wouldn’t let go.

Climbing off the bed, Roman slowly pulled his dark cotton shirt over his head with a look that said he knew exactly what he was doing. The lean, muscular canvas beneath was dominated by the three bullet wounds, but smaller scars popped up here and there.

Ones he wanted to trace with his tongue.

“Come here, love.” Aldous guided Bri between his legs, his front to her back. “Do you like what you see?” he asked, his lips skimming against her temple.

She nodded, pulling her knees together.

“Ah-ah.” Aldous slid his palms down her torso, delivering tantalising flicks to her nipples before spreading her legs. He teased her with long, featherlight touches to her inner thighs. “He wants to see you, doesn’t he?”

Roman unclasped his belt with a metallic clink . “Damn right, I do.”

Back in the cabana, Aldous had purposefully tried not to look at Roman. This time, he was transfixed. His gaze was held hostage by the sight of Roman sliding his boxers down, unveiling the throbbing length beneath.

With a knowing smile, Roman curled his fingers around his stiff cock, stroking it like he had all the time in the world. “Do you approve?”

Aldous let his touch move higher, until the wetness of Bri’s arousal drenched his fingertips. She let out a gasp as he glided through her folds, and a little moan when he rolled her clit. “I think you already know the answer to that.”

“True.” Roman rid himself of his clothes, crawling up the bed to rest on his haunches between Bri’s thighs. “But it doesn’t hurt to hear it.”

As Roman lowered his head to kiss Bri, Aldous’s pulse thundered. Over the past week, he’d got used to Bri’s body against his, in one way or another. He still wasn’t sure how he’d react to her hands touching him, but throwing Roman into the mix had him stumbling.

Aldous’s thighs bracketed Bri’s—meaning Roman was between his legs too.

He was nervous. And hard. So fucking hard he couldn’t think straight.

He was so focused on his nerves that his rolling tease of Bri’s clit slowed, turning even more torturous. But then something wet brushed against his hand. Wet and warm and hard .

Something midway between a gasp and a choke left him. His cock jerked of its own accord.

Roman looked up in an apologetic flash, just as surprised as he was.

“Wait until you feel how hard he is for you,” Aldous murmured in Bri’s ear before Roman could say anything, not wanting to become the focus of the evening. Tonight had taken him out of his comfort zone. Far out of his comfort zone.

He was in bed with a naked man, for fuck’s sake…but then Roman was so much more than a man , wasn’t he?

Just like Bri was so much more than a woman, and she was out of her comfort zone too.

Bri’s hips rolled as he quickened his teasing touch. “Oh god, please,” she begged. “I’m so wet.”

Roman dropped a kiss on her lips. He fisted his cock, giving himself a leisurely stroke—but Aldous didn’t move his hand away.

His entire being squeezed into the inches separating them, until the urge to reach out was so strong he could taste it .

Roman pressed the head of his cock against her soaking entrance, sliding it up and down to coat the blunt head in her arousal—and giving Aldous a dark smirk at the same time. The kind of smirk that said he knew exactly what kind of urges filled Aldous’s head.

Bri let out an ecstatic cry as Roman pushed forward. Her head fell back against Aldous’s shoulder, just as the sounds of hushed speaking from out in the corridor reached them.

Aldous clapped a hand over her mouth, waiting to hear whether the door to their suite was about to be kicked down. “Shh, love,” he whispered into her ear. “We don’t want them to come in and see what we’re doing to you, do we?”

She moaned quietly, her eyelashes flickering with desire.

When it was clear the speaker was just passing, Roman pulled out only to sink back in. He let out a heavy groan, the thrusts of his hip shaking the bed beneath them. The strength of them carried through to Aldous, a delicious echo of the bliss Bri was feeling.

He let his hand fall away from Bri’s mouth, but—

“Put it back,” she whimpered. “I like it.”

Surprise powered his smile, spreading it across his jaw. That was something he hadn’t expected. “Do you like it rough, love?”

Her nod was vigorous, the movement inhibited by the hold he had across her face.

“You heard her.” Aldous locked eyes with Roman.

The first brutal stroke went straight to his cock, amplified by Bri’s muffled scream. She sagged against him, and in that moment he realised just how much she trusted him. Trusted them .

Roman’s snarl of pleasure seized her attention. “You feel fucking phenomenal . Fuck , Bri.” He plunged inside her, losing himself in the rapture he found there.

Trapped between their bodies, Aldous’s steady touch caressed her clit, occasionally grazing Roman’s cock as he plunged inside her. Mewls of pleasure drifted past the hand muffling her lips.

As Roman’s thrusts picked up, the movement of Bri’s body rocked against Aldous’s neglected cock. It was just enough sensation to ensure he was right there with them. Every thrust. Every stifled moan. Every gasped exhale. Until he was so erect, he was sure he would explode.

When Bri’s spine began to arch uncontrollably, he knew it wouldn’t be long—for either of them.

“That’s it, baby,” Roman groaned, his hips picking up speed as they curled into hers. Arousal softened his eyes, and Aldous knew he was right on the edge. “Come for me. Come for us .”

Bri erupted with a high-pitched scream, her spine locking in an arch over his as Roman’s devastating thrusts lengthened her orgasm—and began Aldous’s, his cock exploding as the thrusting movements of Bri’s body toppled him over the edge.

Aldous couldn’t hold it in. Years of refusing to touch himself meant that he had no real clue what it was like to orgasm.

He couldn’t have imagined this.

His climax detonated through him, seizing every muscle in his body. He buried his hoarse groan in Bri’s neck, slamming his eyes shut as wave after wave of wetness spurted from him.

Above him, he heard a distant roar of pleasure that sounded like Roman, but even that couldn’t tear him away. Pleasure held him on a knife edge of ecstasy and agony, until he was sure it would never end, that he would be held in this abyss until the end of his days.

Just as suddenly as it struck him, his orgasm receded, leaving him with his heartbeat thundering in his ears. Aldous gulped in air to recover, using it faster than he could pull it in.

He blinked as he realised Bri and Roman were still on top of him, recovering from their own releases.

Mustering the last of his strength, Aldous guided Roman’s head down onto him, holding him and Bri against his chest. “I have you,” he murmured, letting his hand lovingly thread through Roman’s hair and his lips press an adoring kiss to Bri’s temple. “I have you both.”