by Sophie Oak
His eyes closed, just briefly, and when he opened them again there was a soft ferocity there. “You aren’t a screwup, Gemma, and I’ll beat the living shit out of anyone who tells you otherwise. This is why we need to talk about Patrick and everyone else who put you in this place where you’re terrified of making a wrong move.”
Cade sat down beside her on the couch, his utter ease with his unclothed state on display. He sat next to her, putting a hand on hers like they were just two friends talking and his incredibly large dick wasn’t forming a lightning rod drawing her eyes in. “It isn’t wrong to screw up, G. It’s just normal. I screw up all the time, and Jesse just laughs it off. No one’s going to throw you out if you prove yourself to be human.”
But that wasn’t her experience. So much of her life had been about perfection, and she’d placed herself in the position. She would have lost her scholarship if she hadn’t made straight As. Her internship for a circuit court judge had been fraught with peril, his nastiness coming out if she’d put three sugars in his coffee instead of two. And the firm. God, she’d walked a tightrope every day, always having to be the best.
“I don’t know how to be any other way,” she admitted. “I think it’s just me. My mom and dad were great. They just didn’t understand me.”
“Take off your shirt. That’s where I want to start,” Jesse said.
She managed to get her eyes off Cade’s cock long enough to stare at the floor. Now that she’d seen Cade, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to get naked. “Can’t we turn off the light?”
“No,” Cade said. “Give me the shirt, Gemma.”
For a good-time guy, he seemed awfully bossy. “Jesse’s still dressed.”
“We’re going to have to have a long talk about the meaning of the word submission, darlin’. We can have it one of two ways. We can have it with your shirt off, or we can have it with your ass in the air.”
She shook her head. “Why would my ass be…Oh, you’ll spank me if I don’t take my shirt off.”
“There’s that Harvard-trained brain.” Jesse sat back, a hard glint in his eyes. “I’m going to explain myself just this once. I want you naked because I want this to be intimate. I think you’ll be more honest with your clothes off. I intend to strip off every bit of your armor.”
Cade smiled her way. “I want you naked because I would like to see your tits.”
“You might not like them.” That was her real fear.
Jesse groaned. “Damn it, Gemma, Cade promises he will like your tits.”
“I will be very good friends with them,” Cade said, his face looking lighter than it had in days.
It was the grin on Cade’s face that did it. He was enjoying the play. He wanted to be here, where just moments before she’d wondered if he wanted her. He did. He was comfortable, and she didn’t want to ruin it.
She pulled at the bottom of her shirt.
Jesse held his hand out, taking the shirt and putting it to the side. “And the bra. Tell me about sex with Patrick while you take off your bra.”
He was an impossible man, and he was also an immovable object. She reached around trying to unhook her plain-Jane white bra that didn’t match her underwear. She wished she’d bought a nicer one, but it didn’t seem practical since no one could see her bra. She’d needed to spend money on the outward trappings of success, and no one at the firm gave a damn if undies were lacy and silky, not even Patrick, who often had simply screwed her without taking her bra off.
“Focus, Gemma.” Jesse’s sharp command brought her back to reality.
Oh, yes, she was supposed to talk. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm. Her hands were shaking. She would never get the damn thing off this way. Patrick. They wanted to know about Patrick. “I thought we were okay. I didn’t love him. I know that’s probably wrong, but I didn’t even want to love him. I liked him. He was charming, and we were going to the same place.”
“Tell me about sex, Gemma.” He said the word sex like it was a decadent dessert he wanted to lick up and savor.
“Tell me about sex.” Cade echoed Jesse’s words, but punctuated them by putting his steady hands over her shaking ones. In a single twist, he had the bra undone.
“It was quick. That seemed right at the time. My whole life was that way. I’m not the type of person who stops and smells the roses, Jesse. I tend to tromp all over the roses as I rush to make the subway.”
Cade slid the bra over her arms. She was half naked with two men. Maybe she wasn’t quite the woman she’d been before.
“I like to smell the roses,” Cade said. “And I damn well like playing with them.”
She leaned back because Cade crowded her, his head going down to her chest. He seemed to be taking the whole “making friends with her breasts” thing seriously. And he appeared to want to be really good friends. She gasped as he sucked a nipple into his mouth.
That was what arousal felt like. Holy hell. Her pussy actually quivered. “I think I’m ready now.”
Jesse stood, slipping his own shirt over his head. “Not yet, Gemma. Did you submit to him?”
She nearly laughed, but Cade’s mouth was doing amazing things to her nipples. She had to fight to speak. “Uhm, no. I was in charge of that relationship. Well, I thought I was. I had empirical evidence to support the claim. Patrick started at the firm a year before me, but I worked with him, and we had a big case and he got promoted. And then I worked under him.”
“Cade, get that skirt off her,” Jesse commanded.
Oh, he shouldn’t have made fun of Cade’s supersized man part. Jesse had one of his own. His cock bobbed as he stepped out of his boxers. Gemma didn’t protest the loss of her skirt because she was too busy studying Jesse. His cock was so thick, with a plum-shaped head. For the first time in her life, she actually wondered what a cock would taste like.
Okay, so now she was actually totally naked and there were two other people in the room with her and they were naked, too, and she wasn’t a toddler waiting for a bath. Crap and balls, she was going to have sex. With two men. Really soon.
“Go on, Gemma.” Jesse stood, watching down. His hand covered his cock, stroking himself. He got even bigger, the thick stalk of his dick elongating.
“Jesse, I’m ready.” She was ready. There was no question about it. Her heart was pounding. Her mouth was dry because she was pretty sure every available ounce of moisture in her body was now pooled in her pussy. Could a person get dehydrated from sexual stimulation?
His lips curled up. “Not yet. Tell me the rest.”
Cade tossed her skirt aside and thrust his face between her breasts, nuzzling her as he spread her legs wide.
“Jesse, how am I supposed to talk when he’s doing this to me?” Her legs were around his torso. He was cradled between her thighs, and he started kissing his way down her body.
Jesse didn’t move, simply continued staring down at her as his hand moved up and down his cock. “Consider it a challenge. If you stop talking, he’s going to stop playing.”
Fuck. First she gets Two-Minute Patrick with the skinny balls, and now she got the Big-Dicked Brotherhood, and they seemed to have perfected their torture methods. “Fine. Patrick got his promotion because he passed off my work as his own.”
Jesse’s eyebrows climbed his face. “You let that happen?”
She’d been stupid. She could see that now. “At the time, we’d just gotten engaged, and it seemed like a sacrifice I was making for us as a couple. He’d been there longer. He was up for the promotion. I wouldn’t have gotten it because I was too junior. Oh my god, what is that!”
Stupid question. It was his tongue. Right there on her hoo-haw.
Jesse grinned. “Cunnilingus. Otherwise known as oral sex. Eating pussy. Tasting girl pie. Need I go on? He’s going to stop in a minute.”
She didn’t want him to stop. Her voice came out in a strangled singsong. “So I gave up the work to him. I backed him. And we went on. We did everything a power couple sho
uld.”
“Sex, Gemma. What was it like beyond rushed?”
“Well, it sure as hell didn’t involve this.” She nearly screamed as Cade speared her with his tongue. He just dove right in, sending his tongue straight up her pussy. “Why is he doing this? I don’t think this can taste good.”
Cade’s head came up. His perfectly sensual mouth was glistening with juice. “You taste fucking incredible. Did that asshole tell you you didn’t taste good, baby?”
She shivered, wishing he would go back to the oral sex thing because she was pretty sure she was addicted to it now. “He didn’t like it. He said it wasn’t sanitary.”
“Sex isn’t sanitary, Gemma.” Cade crawled back up her body. “It’s nasty and filthy and gorgeous. This is what you taste like.”
Before she could protest, he covered her mouth with his. He forced her lips open, his tongue delving deep. He’d just lapped at her pussy, fucked her with his tongue, and now he was kissing her like there was no tomorrow, sharing the cream of her own arousal with her.
And she tasted tangy with just a hint of sweet, the flavor mingling with Cade’s own masculine spice. Dirty. Nasty. Intimate. Perfect.
Cade winked at her as he broke off the kiss. “He was a liar. You taste like sunshine, Gemma.”
Sunshine. No one had ever accused her of that. As Cade made his way back down her body, she licked her lips and eagerly opened her legs.
“She’s beginning to learn.” Jesse smiled down at her like she’d just gotten something the rest of the class had grasped long ago. “Finish the story.”
She didn’t recognize the little whine that came out of her. It was a sex noise. She never made sexy kitten noises. “Jesse, please. I don’t have to tell you the rest of the story. According to Cam, it’s all on YouTube.”
Cade sat back with a long-suffering sigh. “You are really going to have to learn some discipline.”
The look in Jesse’s eyes should have scared the shit out of her, but it didn’t. She suddenly knew that no matter what happened, he wouldn’t physically hurt her. He just might spank her ass, but he wouldn’t hurt her. She’d wanted to try this, and now she’d found a man—or two—who just might be able to handle her. If it wasn’t for this whole “bare her soul” thing, she would be really happy.
But he seemed serious. “Fine. I’ll tell you the whole crappy tale.”
“Yes, you will. With your ass in the air.” Jesse twirled his hand. “Turn around, darlin’. Present that ass to me.”
She stopped, her body on full alert. Holy crap balls. He was serious. She looked at Cade, hoping he would save her, but he was on his feet, standing next to Jesse, waiting for her to turn around and “present her ass.”
The whole cabin was still, nothing but her own heartbeat sounding through the place. She had a decision to make, and she was good at making decisions. She needed a whiteboard. She was really good with whiteboards. Decision matrix. She should think about this logically. “Pros and Cons of Allowing Her Ass to Get Whipped.” She could see the whole thing in her head.
“Gemma, darlin’, are you going to rejoin us?” Jesse asked.
“Stop.” Cade shot Jesse a look. “I’m really interested in what the hell she’s thinking.”
She grimaced. “I was making a decision matrix in my head about whether or not I should let you spank me.”
They would run. Most men did. They caught a whiff of her special brand of crazy and they hightailed it to the next bland, cosmetically altered bimbo they could find. This was why she wasn’t honest. This was why she kept her damn mouth shut.
Cade and Jesse looked at each other. Jesse shook his head. “Yeah, I gotta hear this. Go on. Pros?”
Why hadn’t she just done it? She’d felt sexy and hot and so close to that orgasm thing other women talked about but seemed to elude her. Now she just felt silly. But they were smiling at her, and it didn’t seem like they were making fun. It seemed like she amused them. It was a change. “Well, I thought the pros were that I’m curious and you seem like you would like it.”
Jesse’s grin got bigger. “I will, baby. Go on.”
“And I think if I let you spank me, you might be in a better mood and you might let Cade go back to the whole lips-and-tongue thing.”
“Eating your sweet pussy.” Cade offered his version of the right words. “And yes, as long as you give him what he wants, he will allow it. And what’s more, I suspect he’ll give you a little cock.”
She wasn’t sure that part would work. It never had before, but the tongue thing was definitely worth it.
“And the cons?” Jesse asked.
She bit her bottom lip. “I think I might scream, and that would be very unladylike.”
Jesse laughed long and hard, but his eyes were so soft as he looked at her that she didn’t think he was being mean. He got to his knees. How was she already so comfortable with their nudity? He leaned over and kissed her swiftly. “Put that sweet ass in the air. Just a few swats while you tell me the rest of the story.”
He wasn’t going to let up. And she really didn’t want to back down. “All right. How can I turn around if you don’t move?”
He kissed her again, growling just a little. “You are the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen. I am crazy about that smart mouth of yours because you are always going to give me a reason to spank that ass. Now say something sweet and then do as I told you to.”
She wasn’t used to saying anything sweet. What would he think was sweet? “I want this to work.”
He kissed her nose this time. “It will, baby. Now go on.”
He confused her and so did Cade. They both watched as she slid off the couch and got to her knees. She was on all fours, with them at her back. Trust. They wanted trust, and this was way more than she’d trusted anyone. They were looking at her bottom. It wasn’t her best feature. Maybe they would look at her butt and decide it didn’t need any erotic torture.
“Will you look at that?”
She recognized Jesse’s low growl only to be followed with Cade’s smooth tones.
“How can I look at anything else? But she’s not talking.”
There was a loud crack, and then she was squealing just a little. He’d done it. He’d spanked her. He’d laid his hand on her ass. Pain blossomed, spreading its wings and turning into heat. Her ass felt like it was on fire, but she didn’t mind. And she needed to talk. She had to concentrate. “We were engaged for a long time.”
Another smack. There was no other word for it. Jesse smacked her ass and then held his hand there as though allowing the skin to soak up the heat. “Keep going.”
“But we didn’t live together. He said it wouldn’t look good around the firm.” God, now that she was saying the words, she felt so deeply dumb. They would have lived together after they got married. No one would have questioned it. Two of the partners were married to women who worked in the firm. He hadn’t wanted to live with her.
Another smack and a low groan came out of her mouth, but she continued with her story. “We started working on a case about a year ago. Tremon Industries. They were accused of polluting a town’s water supply, but the EPA reports didn’t back the claims. It was a high-profile case. Patrick had me do most of the work.”
“I don’t like this Patrick fellow,” Cade said just as Jesse landed another smack.
“He sounds like an asshole.” Jesse gave her three more in rapid succession.
Her eyes watered. Her skin came alive. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. She was playing with the edge of pain, but it made her feel so awake when she’d been asleep for months and months. She didn’t want it to stop. She wanted the spanking part to flow into the sex part and then to the cuddling part. She wouldn’t think past that. That would flirt with disaster. She’d had enough of disaster. She groaned out the words as Jesse struck the fleshy part of her ass. “I worked so hard. We were making a motion to get the whole case thrown out based on lack of evidence. I worked for six months on those m
otions and the presentation. I finished up and went to Patrick’s place. I was so sure I would get the promotion to junior partner because they listened to Patrick.”
He slapped her ass again, but held his hand there. Then she felt the comfort of another hand on her back, smoothing the skin between her shoulders. Cade. Jesse’s hands caressed her backside. Four hands soothing her. Jesse had been right. This was so much more intimate than merely telling them. She would have given them the story in flat details with no emotion, but she could hear feeling in her voice as she spoke now. “They talked about me. They made fun of me and how easy it was to fool me. And then I did something stupid.”
She felt someone, Jesse most likely, lay a kiss at the base of her spine. “What did you do, darlin’?”
“I kind of had a complete mental breakdown, you know, one of those times when everything goes red, and I didn’t even think about what I was doing and I ended up being arrested by the NYPD after attempting to take off Patrick’s balls with my bare hands. He was a complete chickenshit and locked himself in the bathroom so I had to fight Christina Big Tits.”
Jesse laughed a little. “You are going to have to make an effort to learn names, Gemma.”
“I don’t care about her name. I did care about the seventy-two-hour mental health hold they put me in.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Gemma. They messed with you. You messed back,” Cade said.
She’d lost her job, her apartment, her future. Maybe it was simple in Cade’s world, but it hadn’t been the right play in hers. “So I just summed up my sex life. Two lovers, one of whom is now perfectly happy with a man named Harry and their three Welsh corgis, and Patrick, who just used me and said I wasn’t good at sex. I think a lot of people thought I wasn’t good at anything emotional. They called me the Ice Princess.”
She’d had to be. Any emotion would have been used ruthlessly against her. Had been. The meltdown had been her first emotional outburst and she’d been fired.
She gasped as a hand slid through her labial lips, splitting them and stroking.